Differences in slaughtering characteristics between crossbred pigs with Pietrain and Duroc as terminal sire

In this paper results on investigation of 27 carcasses of crossbred pigs were presented. The pigs were divided into two groups regarding the breed of terminal sires: Pietrain group had 15 and Duroc group 12 carcasses. All dams were double crosses of Swedish Landrace and Large White. Pigs were slaughtered at approximate weight of 100 kg and important measures of carcass and meat quality were taken. Analyses showed that pigs from Pietrain group had longer carcasses (P<0.001). No differences in conformation of hams were found as well as loin eye area between the groups (P>0.05), but the pigs from Pietrain group had significantly lower fat area (P<0.05) indicating higher meatiness of the pigs from this group proved by significantly lower fat/meat ratio (P<0.01). Although no differences in the percentage of bones were found (P>0.05) carcasses of Pietrain group had significantly higher percent of lean (P<0.001) and less fat (P<0.01) than the carcasses of the pigs with Duroc as terminal sire breed. With exception of initial pH value measured in ham, significant differences in all meat quality indicators were found between the groups and all of these were in favour of the meat originating from pigs crosses with Duroc as terminal sire. The distribution of meat into 5 quality classes showed that in Pietrain and Duroc group, 85% and 25% (respectively) of meat samples were described as PSE (pale, soft, exudative) and RSE (reddish-pink, soft, exudative) condition. Only 15% of the samples from Pietrain group was classified as RFN (red, firm, non-exudative); in this category 58.33% of the samples from Duroc group was distributed.