Prediction of the fatty acid composition in backfat of pigs as breeding tool

Pork fat is a major constituent of many processed meat products. The quality of which is fairly depending on oxidative stability and consistency of the fat, which in turn is mainly determined by its fatty acid composition. The fatty acid composition is influenced not only by the lipid composition of the feed, but also by genetic factors. To be able to make use of genetic effects and to select animals with the desired traits, a high thruput method is required in order to measure the fatty acid composition in large numbers of animals. It has been shown previously that the fatty acid composition of pig backfat can be reliably predicted by using a NIR-fibre optic probe. As reference method for calibration and validation, gaschromatographic fatty acid analysis of the backfat of 191 animals was performed. The coefficients of determination and the standard error of prediction in an independent data set were 0.92, 0.76, 0.92 and 0.62, 0.67, 0.49 %-points for the proportion of saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) fatty acids, respectively. This rapid method was applied at the backfat of 1964 pigs in the pig performance testing station at Sempach, Switzerland. Despite all the pigs receiving the same feed, the proportion of SFA, MUFA, and PUFA varied widely. Based on this dataset, medium to high heritabilities were estimated for these traits. These results indicate a high potential for modifying the fatty acid composition of pig adipose tissue by means of breeding.