Production of entire males with Belgian Landrace and hybrid pigs: The incidence of sensory aberrations

This study aimed to evaluate the consequences of boar-meat production with Belgian Landrace (31 BLs) and Seghers hybrid (65 hybrids) pigs. In total, 33 boars, 34 barrows and 29 gilts were individually housed and fed ad libitum from 28 kg until slaughter. The advantage of entire male pigs consisted of an improved feed-conversion efficiency and 4% (BL) to 5% (hybrids) more lean meat per carcass in comparison with the castrates, without detrimental implications for meat quality as determined by instrumental methods; 35 20% and 15% of the boars demonstrated backfat off-odours, meat off-odours or meat off-flavours, respectively. It must be noted that a certain percentage of the gilts and, to a lesser extent, of the barrows also showed aberrating far and meat characteristics; 25% and 20% of the boar carcasses could be rejected based on the sensory threshold levels for skatole and androstenone, respectively. The age and weight at slaughter did not influence the sensory properties of fat and meat. However, the androstenone level increased with slaughter weight; 35% and 30% of the fat off-odours could be explained by skatole and androstenone level, respectively. The frequency of the meat off-odours could only be explained for 18% by the androstenone level.