Signs of fatte­ning and meat qualities of young pigs of different intensities of formation in early ontogenesis and the level of their phenotypic consolidation

Abstract

Goal. To study the fattening and meat qualities of young pigs of different intensities of formation in early ontogenesis, to calculate the coefficients of phenotypic consolidation and the level of correlation between traits, as well as to determine the criteria for the selection of highly productive animals of the original parental forms. Methods. Zootechnical, genetic, statistical, pure breeding. Results. It was established that the main indicators of growth, fattening, and meat qualities of young pigs of the controlled population met the requirements of the first class and the elite class. Taking into account the intrabreed differentiation of animals of the large white breed according to the «intensity of formation» index, it was established that young pigs of the I experimental group (∆t=0.935 – 1.087 points) prevailed over peers of the II (∆t=0.728 – 0.912 points) and III (∆t= =0.618 – 0.707 points) groups according to the average daily increase in live weight, the age of reaching live weight of 100 kg and B. Tyler’s index by an ave­rage of 2.31%. The young pigs of the III experimental group, compared to the peers of the first two, were characterized by a smaller thickness of lard at the level of 6 – 7 thoracic vertebrae, a longer length of the chilled carcass, and the length of the bacon half of the chilled half carcass. According to the largest (front) width of the bacon half of the chilled carcass and the smallest (back) width of the bacon half of the chilled carcass, no significant difference between the animals of the experimental groups was established. Coefficients of phenotypic consolidation of growth traits, fattening, and meat qualities of young pigs of different intrabreed differentiation according to the «intensity of formation» index ranged from –0.263 to +0.569. Coefficients of pairwise correlation between growth traits, fattening, and meat qualities, as well as «formation intensity» and B. Tyler indices varied from –0.872 to +0.764. Conclusions. The criterion for the selection of highly productive animals of the original parent forms based on growth, fattening, and meat qualities of their offspring is their compliance with the elite class according to the current instructions on pig grading. According to the fattening qualities, the variation of the «intensity of formation» index is equal to ∆t=0.935 – 1.087 points, according to meat qualities — ∆t=0.618 – 0.707 points.