Feed Supplementation Detection during the Last Productive Stage of the Acorn-Fed Iberian Pig through a Faecal Volatilome Analysis

Simple Summary The acorn-fed Iberian pig is known worldwide due to its unique and exclusive feeding regime for finishing, which consists exclusively of grazing acorns and grass in the dehesa agroforestry system. However, some farmers try to increase the carrying capacity of their farms using supplementary feed for grazing pig fattening. The current regulation to certificate products using this breed is based on traceability and visual observations, which can be considered subjective. Therefore, considering that background, the present study seeks to provide an analytical approach through the analysis of faecal volatilome to authenticate the acorn-fed Iberian pig diet and to discriminate the animals that receive supplementary feed during the finishing period. The acorn-fed Iberian pig is known worldwide due to the quality of the resulting products commercialized after a natural and free grazing period of fattening in the dehesa agroforestry ecosystem. The quality regulation of the pig breed reserves acorn denomination for only those products obtained from animals exclusively fed grazing acorns and other natural resources; however, sometimes, feed supplementation of the pig's diet is fraudulently employed to reach an earlier slaughtering weight and to increase pig stocking rate, a strategy called postre (meaning feed supplement). In this sense, although many studies focused on Iberian pig diet have been published, the field detection of feed use for acorn-fed pig during the last finishing stage foraging in the dehesa, a practice which clashes with the official regulation, has not been explored yet. The present study employs a volatilome analysis (gas chromatography coupled to ion mobility spectrometry) of a non-invasive biological sample (faeces) to discriminate the grazing diet of only natural resources, that acorn-fed Iberian pigs are supposed to have, from those pigs that are also supplemented with feed. The results obtained show the suitability of the methodology used and the usefulness of the information obtained from faeces samples to discriminate and detect the fraudulent use of feed for acorn-fed Iberian pig fattening: a classification success ranging between 86.4% and 100% was obtained for the two chemometric approaches evaluated. These, together with the results of discriminant models, are discussed, in addition to the importance that the methodology optimized implies for the Iberian pig sector and market, which is also introduced. This methodology could be adapted to control organic farming animals or other upstanding livestock production systems which are supposed to be fully dependent on a natural grazing diet.

Automated summary

This study aims to authenticate the diet of acorn-fed Iberian pigs and detect the fraudulent use of feed by analyzing the volatile compounds in fecal samples. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method and highlight its importance in preventing feed fraud.