Carcass and meat quality traits of pig fatteners from Slovenian breeding programme

The aim of the present study was the comparison of carcass and meat quality traits of commercial pigs of various crossbreeds from two major Slovenian herds. The analysis is based on phenotypic data from field trials which have been collected in the last past five years within the Slovenian breeding programme. Important differences in carcass traits were observed between two herds and were associated to different crossbreeds used. In spite of that economically important result on the slaughter line (lean meat %) was similar for both herds. Meat quality traits were also significantly different between the two herds. Again, the difference could be ascribed to crossbreeds used. However, since the herd effect is connected with abattoir effect, different ante-mortem conditions and/or lower robustness of these animals to premortal stress could also be contributed to the observed differences. The presented results give important information on the state-of-the-art regarding meat quality of Slovenian pigs.