Effects of space allowance and environmental enrichment on meat fatty acid composition of heavy pigs
Cornale P1, Lussiana C1, Renna M2, Brugiapaglia A1, Malfatto VM1, Perona G2, Mimosi A1
1Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Turin, Italy; 2Department of Veterinary
Science, University of Turin, Italy. e-mail: manuela.renna@unito.it.
Introduction. Housing conditions influence pig behavior and can affect animal response at
slaughter, potentially affecting animal welfare and pork meat quality [1]. Limited space allowance and barren environment are two of the most important concerns of intensive production systems [2]. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of increasing space allowance (SA) and introducing suspended pieces of wood as environmental enrichment (EE) on pork meat fatty acid profile.
Animals, material and methods. 640 hybrid heavy pigs (age: 13 wks; BW: 25 kg; sex
ratio: 1:1) were housed in a commercial barn with partially slatted flooring and were offered a pelleted diet (CP: 17.9%; CF: 4.9%; DE: 13.3 MJ kg−1). The experimental design
consisted of a 2x2 factorial design with 2 SA (1 vs. 1.5 m2/head) and with or without EE.
The 4 treatments were randomly allocated to 40 pens with 10 replicates per treatment: small floor space-barren pen (SS-B), small floor space-enriched pen (SS-E), increased floor space-barren pen (IS-B), and increased floor space-enriched pen (IS-E). At the end of the trial (20 wks), 40 pigs (10 pigs/treatment) were randomly selected and slaughtered (LW: 163±9.5 kg; ADFI: 2.9 kg; ADWG: 0.97 kg).
The fatty acid (FA) composition of the Semimembranosus muscle was assessed [3]. Data were analysed with a mixed model and significance was set at p < 0.05.
Results and discussion. Results are showed in Table 1. The SA had no effects on the
FA composition, while increased linoleic acid, total PUFA and total n3 FA contents were detected in the enriched pens. Other FAs (-linolenic, arachidonic, and n6 FA) were slightly, even though not significantly, influenced by the EE inclusion. Scarce and contrasting results are available in literature [4,5]. Enriched conditions modified pigs behavioural and physiological response [6], affecting their lipid metabolism.
Table 1. Main fatty acids (% on total detected FA) in pork meat as affected by SA and EE.
Fatty acid SS-B SS-E IS-B IS-E SEM SA EE
C16:0 26.28 26.41 26.73 26.21 0.819 ns ns C16:1c 2.75 2.52 2.31 2.71 0.383 ns ns C18:0 13.42 14.24 13.44 13.34 1.016 ns ns C18:1 c9 41.35 39.77 41.39 40.74 1.925 ns ns C18:2 n6 8.14 9.18 8.18 9.12 1.803 ns * C18:3 n3 0.21 0.27 0.23 0.26 0.052 ns 0.06 C20:4 n6 0.87 0.85 0.83 0.92 0.358 ns 0.07 SFA 41.32 42.42 41.89 41.24 1.396 ns ns MUFA 48.87 46.63 48.27 47.89 2.246 ns ns PUFA 9.81 10.95 9.84 10.87 2.273 ns * n3 FA 0.36 0.44 0.41 0.42 0.103 ns * n6 FA 9.44 10.51 9.45 10.45 2.183 ns 0.06
*p < 0.05; ns, not significant; SEM, standard error of the mean.
Conclusion. The results showed that suspended pieces of wood as environmental
enrichment slightly affect pork meat FAs. Therefore, further studies are needed to investigate the role of improved animal welfare conditions on FA composition and nutritional properties of pork.
References: [1] Millet et al. (2005) J. Sci. Food Agric. 85: 709-19; [2] Douglas et al. (2015) Animal 9-7: 1210-20; [3] Schmid et al. (2009) Fleischwirtschaft 89: 101-4; [4] Bonneau et al. (2010) Meat Sci. 84: 293-300; [5] Patton et al. (2008) Animal 2-3 : 471-8 ; [6] Cornale et al. (2015) J. Vet. Behav. 10: 569-75.
