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The swine industry's needs differ depending on the target market and the conditions of each production system. The market ranges from segments more focused on lean yield, to those oriented to maximum meat quality, to markets with an almost exclusive focus on efficiency.
Table 1. Spain market segmentation and boar types.
This diversity requires a wide range of terminal boar lines to meet the specific needs of each market segment.
Figure 1. Features of Topigs Norsvin terminal boar lines.
Selection objectives in the terminal boar lines
Topigs Norsvin maintains a philosophy of Balanced Selection that has governed the improvement programs of all its genetic lines for over 20 years. In addition to the more traditional traits of growth and efficiency at the growing-finishing phase, its boar line objectives have always included a special emphasis on other aspects such as robustness, carcass quality, and meat quality.
The right boar for every segment
Figure 2. Selection objectives for TN Select.
TN SELECT: Balanced Pietrain
Pietrain 100% free of the halothane gene with the objective of a more balanced selection between growth, efficiency, yield, and robustness.
Target market: Producers seeking to produce lean meat at low cost with excellent carcass yield at medium and high weights (> 110 kg live weight). Selected for years to reduce the incidence of boar taint, it stands out for the vitality of its piglets.
Figure 3. Selection objectives for TN Tempo.
TN TEMPO: Focus on robustness
TN TEMPO is a Yorkshire-based synthetic line.
Target market: Production of lively and robust piglets with high lean growth potential up to high weights. At its inception, this line was largely selected under conventional health conditions, which has created a boar with a unique natural resistance to health challenges, showing greater tolerance to disease, while maintaining its productive efficiency.
TN REX: Lean meat and greater robustness
TN REX is a hybrid boar that combines characteristics of the TN Select Pietrain and the TN Tempo synthetic line.
Target market: Producers looking for a lean and well-conformed pig, especially robust and able to maintain its growth in any circumstance. It adapts to all types of environments, due to its greater robustness and feed intake capacity, allowing it to maintain good growth and conversion rates, which makes it the ideal choice in particularly hot areas.
Figure 4. Selection objectives for TN Duroc.
TN DUROC: Balanced Duroc
Duroc capable of producing a higher percentage of full-value pigs. It stands out for its good finishing and slaughter results.
Target market: Producers looking for a balance between efficient production at low cost and quality meat, which adapts to the specific needs of cured ham production.
Figura 5. Selection objectives for Iberduroc.
IBERDUROC: Maximum meat quality
Duroc focused on producing high-quality meat.
Target market: Producers looking for a premium product, with excellent marbling and fat cover at market weights over 125 kg live weight.
The importance of Robustness in boar lines
Fifty percent of the genetic value of finishing pigs depends on the terminal boar. Pigs must express their genetic potential in all types of environments, facing all types of environmental, health, and management challenges. For this reason, robustness has been a key element in our selection programs and a distinguishing feature of all our lines.
Achieving more robust animals requires the use of advanced technologies, including:
- Genomics: We are working with genetic markers for PRRS resistance, stress resistance, and those associated with piglet mortality. We are working on validating new genetic markers related to the modulation of the immune response associated with greater disease resilience.
- CT scanning: This technology, in addition to accurately measuring carcass characteristics in the live animal, allows direct selection against osteochondrosis. Accurate collection of other phenotypes (e.g. organ size) will allow us to estimate new genetic values associated with more resistant and robust animals in the near future.
Figure 6. TN Duroc scanned by computerized tomography.
Estimation of robustness-associated genetic values:
Topigs Norsvin in collaboration with research institutions has demonstrated the possibility of estimating robustness-associated genetic values that explain an important part of the genetic variability observed under experimental infection conditions.
Figure 7. Different mortality of the progeny of boars from the same genetic line subjected to experimental infection.
More flavorful pork
Meat quality is present in the selection objectives of all lines to ensure that the experience of consuming pork remains attractive to the consumer. Criteria such as marbling, drip loss, tenderness, color, absence of boar taint, and the fatty acid profile are used, employing the most sophisticated technologies, such as NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy), which allows us to precisely determine intramuscular fat content and fatty acid profile, among other characteristics.
Figure 8. Determination of intramuscular fat content by NIRS and drip loss assessment.
Selection of tailor-made boars
The quantity and quality of information available allows us to make a much more precise selection of the boars that best fit each client's needs. We can select boars that prioritize specific criteria such as carcass yield, growth, marbling, or even according to their genetic values for the main meat cuts or look to favor a certain fatty acid profile in the progeny.
