Genetic antagonism between intramuscular fat content and primal cuts in Iberian pigs?
2007
Fernández, A.; García-Casco, J.; Pedro, E. de; Silió L.;Rodríguez M.C., Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias, Madrid (Spain). Departamento de Mejora Genética Animal
The objective of this work was to estimate the correlations between intramuscular fat content in M. longissimus, the percentage of hams, forelegs and loins, and the daily growth over the fattening period. Data analysed came from 3983 castrated males, born in 43 herds since the year 1993. All the animals were fattened under a common extensive management system distributed in 50 batches and slaughtered at approximately 160 kg. Heritability estimates presented high values for all the traits (h2 equal to 0.38-0.43) indicating that the selection for these traits could be effective. Genetic correlations between percentages of primal cuts were high and positive (from 0.49 to 0.74). This fact indicates that these traits are partially controlled by the same group of genes. However, genetic correlations between intramuscular fat content in M. longissimus and percentages of the main primal cuts showed values close to zero. This result indicates that it is possible to carry out an effective selection scheme focused on the improvement of carcass traits, without affecting the meat suitability for dry-curing in a short-time horizon
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