Collaborative project: Investigations on specific feeding and housing concepts for fattening boars in order to reduce boar taint due to androstenone and skatole levels in the carcass - BoarTaintDown - subproject 3 | FISA - Forschungsinformationssystem Agrar und Ernährung

Collaborative project: Investigations on specific feeding and housing concepts for fattening boars in order to reduce boar taint due to androstenone and skatole levels in the carcass - BoarTaintDown - subproject 3

Project

Project code: 2813800810
Contract period: 01.02.2011 - 31.12.2013
Budget: 106,790 Euro
Purpose of research: Experimental development

During the first part of the present study an estimation of breeding values based on androstenone and skatole content of neckfat was established for a terminal sire line. Sires were selected with respect to high and low levels of EBVs. Progenies were produced by specific breeding scheme and used in the feeding trials subsequently. In the last three weeks prior to slaughter five different diets/concepts were tested for their ability to minimize risk of boar taint in an experimental design. The most promising and practicable diet (coarsely grounded) were tested (versus finely grounded) under field conditions in a regular finisher unit. To generate recommendations with special regards to social behavior the finishers were housed in unisex or mixed groups at the same time. In total 976 male and 387 female finishers were tested. The results show no influence of coarse structure of the feed on the risk of boar taint. Neither the different feeding concepts nor keeping boar groups separately results in significant differences in animal behavior or losses. In agreement to the most recent publications estimators of heritability of skatole and androstenone are high, 0.51 and 0.49, respectively. It is of great importance to conduct such trials using well genetically defined animals.

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