Genetic and environmental effects on a meat spotting defect in seasoned dry-cured ham

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Abstract

Purpose of this investigation was to deter- mine the nature of a visible spotting defect on the slice of dry-cured ham and assess environ- mental and genetic causes of this frequent problem. A group of 233 pigs from commercial cross-breeding lines, progeny of ten boars and forty seven sows, was raised in a single herd to obtain the Italian Heavy Pig, typically slaugh- tered at 160±10 kg live weight and older than 9 months of age. A quality evaluation of their right dry-cured hams, seasoned according to the Parma P.D.O. protocol, was undertaken. Each ham was cross-sectioned to obtain a slice of Semimembranosus, Semitendinosus and Biceps Femoris muscles. The focused pheno- type was the presence/absence of brownish spots in these muscles, which represent a remarkable meat defect with strong impact on the final sale price. Environmental and man- agement factors were considered in order to evaluate variability related to the phenotype. Animals were raised on two different flooring types (concrete and slatted floor) and a Vitamin C diet was also supplemented in the last 45 days before slaughtering to half of the animals. While the pre-planned environmental effects did not show any significant contribution to the total variability of the phenotype, the genetic analysis showed a near to zero value for heri- tability with a consistent 0.32 repeatability. The proportion of the total phenotypic variance was explained by an important dominance genetic component (0.26) indicating that the techno- logical seasoning process may play a secondary role on the expression of this phenotype. © Copyright S. Moro et al.

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Moro, S., Restelli, G. L., Arrighi, S., Moretti, V., Bontempo, V., Rizzi, R., … Pagnacco, G. (2011). Genetic and environmental effects on a meat spotting defect in seasoned dry-cured ham. Italian Journal of Animal Science, 10(1), 33–37. https://doi.org/10.4081/ijas.2011.e7

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