Fatty acid profile of the fat from Celta pig breed fattened using a traditional feed: Effect of the location in the carcass

The Celta breed of pig is an autochthonous breed raised in Galicia (northwest Spain), whose numbers are presently increasing. In this work, the content of 22 fatty acids was studied in samples of fat taken from three different deposits on the dressed carcasses (intramuscular, subcutaneous ventral and subcutaneous dorsal) of 14 Celta castrated male hogs. These were slaughtered at the age of 15 months after being fed a traditional diet mainly consisting, during the last three months of fattening, of chestnuts (fruit of Castanea sativa). The intramuscular fat showed higher (37.93±1.27%) statistically significant values (P<0.05) of saturated fatty acids than the subcutaneous ventral fat (34.84±2.41%) and the subcutaneous dorsal fat (31.89±1.49%). Stearic acid showed the largest difference among the three locations. The unsaturated fatty acids showed a significantly higher percentage in the subcutaneous dorsal fat (68.11±1.49%) than in the subcutaneous ventral fat (65.16±2.41%) and in the intramuscular fat (62.07±1.27%). The percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids was also significantly higher in the subcutaneous dorsal fat (15.51±0.72%) than in the subcutaneous ventral fat (14.13±1.02%) and in the intramuscular fat (11.29±1.72%). Linoleic and eicosadienoic fatty acids showed the highest variation in their percentages when compared in the three locations of the fat in the carcass. The contents of monounsaturated fatty acids were similar in all three locations and no significant differences were observed linked to the location of the fat in the carcass. Using statistical techniques of discriminant analysis, it has been possible to correctly differentiate the fat of the three locations on the basis of their content (%) of the C18, C18:2 and C20:2 fatty acids. The profile of fatty acids that we observed in the fat of the Celta hogs does not differ greatly from those described by other authors in other pig breeds and crosses.