Influence of Immunocastration and Diet on Meat and Fat Quality of Heavy Female and Male Pigs

Simple Summary Sufficient fat cover is necessary for an optimum dry-curing process of Teruel dry-cured hams. However, in recent years, gilts intended for this type of hams are characterized by lack of fat deposition, since male pigs are surgically castrated, to miss boar taint, and castration increases fatness. Thus, immunocastration or the increase of energy in the diet or the decrease of dietary crude protein and amino acids could solve this problem. On the other hand, the surgical castration of male pigs could be banned in the near future in the European Union. Hence, immunocastration could be a solution, as well. However, immunocastrated males seems to present lower fatness than surgically castrated males. Thus, it would be interesting to study feeding plans that increase fatness. Therefore, two experiments were conducted, one with females and another with males, to evaluate the effect of immunocastration and diet on meat and fat quality. In conclusion, immunocastration is a good practice in gilts, as it improves meat quality and technological fat quality. However, in the case of males, this strategy deteriorates meat quality when compared with surgical castration, and it should be accompanied with a high-energy diet or a low-crude-protein diet to guarantee an adequate fat consistency. Two experiments were carried out; one with female pigs and the other with male pigs destined for Teruel dry-cured ham production, to evaluate the effect of immunocastration (entire gilts-EG vs. immunocastrated gilts-IG and surgically castrated males vs. immunocastrated males-IM) and diet (control vs. high energy vs. low crude protein and amino acids) on meat quality and fat composition. Fifteen meat samples and eight fat samples of each treatment were analyzed in both experiments. In the case of males, six fat samples per treatment were analyzed to determine boar taint. Immunocastration is a good strategy in gilts intended for dry-cured ham production because improves meat composition; however, in males, immunocastration impairs the results of pork chemical composition compared with surgical castration. The IG presented a lower polyunsaturated/saturated fatty acids ratio than EG, improving fat technological quality. Diets had little effect on pork or fat quality in gilts, but a high-energy level using oilseeds and a low-crude-protein and -amino-acids diet from 80 to 137 kg of body weight could be interesting in IM to maintain or increase fat consistency, respectively. Moreover, in general, immunocastration is effective in avoiding boar taint in males.

Automated summary

The translation highlights the importance of fat cover in the dry-curing process of Teruel dry-cured hams and explores the impacts of immunocastration and diets on meat and fat quality in gilts and males intended for dry-cured ham production. It suggests that immunocastration is beneficial for gilts but may have negative effects on pork chemical composition in males, which can be mitigated by specific diets. The study also emphasizes the potential of immunocastration in avoiding boar taint in males.