Carcass and meat quality traits of pig reciprocal crosses with a share of Pietrain breed

The study was carried out on 119 hybrid grower-finisher pigs that were divided into 5 experimental groups. The analysis covered carcass and meat quality traits of crossbred pigs produced by mating Polish Large White x Polish Landrace crossbred sows with boars of either purebred Pietrain (P) or crossbreds of Line 990 x Pietrain (LP), or Pietrain x Line 990 (PL), or Duroc x Pietrain (DP), or Pietrain x Duroc (PD). The analysis of results which include the effect of the RYR1 gene polymorphism showed that porkers descending from Pietrain boars (P) had a higher meat content in the carcass and a larger loin eye area in comparison with porkers descending from DP and PD boars, and a larger loin eye area in comparison with porkers descending from boars that were LP crosses. Meat of porkers descending from Pietrain boars had lower water-holding capacity (WHC) and higher lightness (L*) in comparison with porkers descending from crossbred boars where the Pietrain breed was used on the paternal side (LP and DP). Meat of porkers descending from Pietrain boars had a lower content of water-soluble protein compared to other groups with a 25% share of the Pietrain breed. In addition, no significant influence of the position effect on carcass and meat quality was found out in porkers obtained from the crossing of sows of the White breed with crossbred boars descending from two-way crosses of the Pietrain breed with Line 990 (LP and PL) and with the Duroc breed (DP and PD).