Fatty acid profile of m. longissimus dorsi of Mangalitsa and Moravka pig breeds

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the chemical composition and fatty acid content in m. longissimus dorsi (MLD) of two indigenous pig breeds (ML - Swallow-belly Mangalitsa and M - Moravka) reared in free range farm conditions and fed complete mixtures used for commercial meat pig genotypes. The body mass of ML and M pigs at slaughter was, on average, 107.14 and 107.61 kg, respectively. In MLD of M pigs, more total fat was measured compared to ML breed (6.96 % compared to 5.10 %, P lt 0.05). Protein content in MLD of ML pigs was higher by +0.92 % (P lt 0.01) compared to M pigs. Male castrates of M pigs had more fat compared to gilts of the same breed (8.64 compared to 5.29 %), and the 3.35 % difference between mean values was statistically significant (P lt 0.05). The breed of pigs influenced the total saturated fatty acids (P=0.011) and mono-unsaturated fatty acid (P=0.003) contents, but not the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (P=0.325). In the case of saturated fatty acids in the MLD of ML and M pigs, the most common were C16:0 (25.05 % and 25.53 %) and C18:0 (12.73 % and 14.40 %). The MLD of M pigs contained 1.67 % more stearic acid compared to ML pigs (P=0.004). Pigs of ML, compared to M pigs, had more C18:1cis-9 (+2.31 %), C16:1 (+0.49 %), C17:1 (+0.10 %) and less C20:1cis-11 (-0.25 %). The content of two essential fatty acids, C18:2n-6 and C18:3n-3, did not vary according to breed or sex of pigs (P>0.05). The n-6/n-3 ratio was higher than optimal (18.7 for breed ML and 13.7 for M).