BREED AND CROSSBREEDING EFFECTS ON WEIGHT, YIELD AND QUALITY OF HEAVYITALIAN DRY-CURED HAMS

The aim of this study was to estimate direct heterosis and breed addit ive effects of Belgian Landrace (BL), Duroc (DU) and Spotted Poland (S P) in comparison with Italian Large White (LW) on weight, losses and p ercentage yields during processing, and qualitative traits of heavy dr y-cured hams. Hams from 290 pigs of 16 genetic types, produced by LW, BL X LW, DU X LW and SP X LW gilts mated with LW, BL, DU and SP boars, were controlled during industrial processing; a sub-sample of 116 dry -cured hams were deboned and chemical composition, colour and organole ptic properties were assessed. Technological processing traits were sl ightly influenced by additive effects and the imported breeds gave yie lds of dry-cured hams comparable to those of LW. BL crossbred pigs red uced the incidence of bone on the weight of seasoned ham (P < 0.01), b ut tended to have a higher percentage of ham discarded during processi ng than LW and a lower ham flavour score (P < 0.05). These findings su ggest a lesser dry-curing suitability of BL-derived hams, even though no pigs gave PSE meat. DU decreased the incidence of bone (P < 0.05), protein content (P < 0.05) and flavour score (P < 0.10) and increased dry matter and sodium chloride (P < 0.05) of dry-cured hams with respe ct to LW. SP gave lighter boned hams than LW (P < 0.01), but with high er trimming discards (P < 0.05), and did not exert any influence on qu ality traits of seasoned hams. Direct heterosis never affected weight, losses and quality traits of seasoned hams, suggesting a negligible e ffect of crossbreeding on processing traits of pork meat.