Influence of gender and castration of females on growth performance and carcass and meat quality of heavy pigs destined to the dry-cured industry

¹ Departamento de Produccin Animal, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
² Imasde Agroalimentaria, S.L., 28224 Madrid, Spain
³ COPESE S.A., 40300 Sepúlveda, Segovia, Spain

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gonzalo.gmateos{at}upm.es.

	Abstract

Crossbred pigs (n=240) from Pietrain*Large White sires mated to Landrace*Large White dams with an average of 100 d of age (60.5 ± 2.3 kg) were used to investigate the effects of gender and slaughter weight (SW) on growth performance, carcass and meat quality characteristics. There were six treatments arranged factorially with three genders (intact females, IF; castrated females, CF; castrated males, CM) and two SW (114; 122 kg BW). Each of the six combinations of treatments was replicated four times and the experimental unit was a pen with 10 pigs. Castrated males and females ate more feed, grew faster and had more carcass backfat depth and fat thickness at the gluteus medius muscle (GM) but lower loin yield than IF (P < 0.05). In addition, CF and CM had more intramuscular fat (P < 0.05) and less linoleic acid content in the subcutaneous fat (P < 0.01) than IF. Pigs slaughtered at 122 kg BW had lower ADG (P < 0.05), had decreased gain-to-feed ratio (P < 0.05), and more GM fat than pigs slaughtered at 114 kg BW (P < 0.05). It is concluded that CF and CM had similar productive performance and meat quality characteristics when slaughtered at the same age and that castration of females improved daily gains and increased weight and fat content of primal cuts with respect to IF. Therefore, castration of females is recommended in pigs destined to the dry-cured industry because of the beneficial effects on quality of primal cuts.

Key Words: carcass traits, gilt castration, growth performance, slaughter weight, pork quality