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An anti-gonadotropin releasing factor (GnRF) immunological product is gaining popularity as a new technology used to take advantage of an entire male pig's ability to deposit more muscle and less fat more efficiently than a physical castrate. During the early stages of growth the pig is allowed to remain an intact male. Then a few weeks prior to harvest the pig is treated with a two injection series of the immunological product to alleviate any negative boar odors that are typically associated with production of entire males. The objective of this experiment was to determine if increasing dietary lysine levels would affect processing characteristics of ham and bacon manufactured from raw materials derived from immunologically castrated (IC) male pigs. Another objective was to test whether further processed products made from IC males were different from those made from entire males or physical castrates. Physical castrates, IC males, and entire males were assigned to one of four diet programs with increasing lysine levels in a step-down lysine inclusion program that culminated with the following concentrations in the late finishing diet: physical castrate - low lysine (0.7%), IC - low lysine (0.7%), IC - low/medium lysine (0.8%), IC – medium/high lysine (0.9%), IC - high lysine (1.0%), and entire - high lysine (1.0%).
Based on this population of pigs, raw materials derived from IC males are an acceptable substitute for raw materials from physical castrates to manufacture further processed products. In general, fresh bellies from IC males were thinner and softer (P < 0.05) than fresh bellies from physical castrates, but not as thin or as soft as fresh bellies from entire males. There were no differences (P > 0.05) in iodine values between physical castrates or IC male regardless of lysine level. Cook loss percentages of cured bellies from IC males were slightly higher than physical castrates, but there were no differences (P > 0.05) in cooked yield between physical castrates and IC males. As expected, entire males had the highest cooked loss and lowest cooked yield for cured bellies among all treatment groups. There were no differences among any treatments in cooked loss, protein percentage, or protein fat-free values of cured and smoked hams.
Therefore it can be concluded that it is possible to manufacture high quality cured and smoked hams from IC males. Bacon from IC males in this population of pigs seemed to be similar to bacon from physical castrates when pigs were fed a conventional corn and soy based diet.
DD Boler, DL Clark, AA Baer, DM Meeuwse, VL King, FK McKeith and J Killefer, 2011. Journal of Animal Science, 89(7): 2200-2209. http://dx.doi.org/10.2527/jas.2010-3641
