Genetic parameters for intramuscular fat and traits of fat quality measured with near-infrared reflection spectroscopy in pigs of Bavarian performance testing stations

Genetic parameters for intramuscular fat (IMF), percentage of triglycerides in fatty tissue (FIF), iodine value (FETTZ) as well as percentage of satur ated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and poly-unsatur ated fatty acids (PUFA) in backfat were estimated from pigs in progeny test ing stations in Bavaria. The data contained 5672 observations from German L andrace (DL) pigs and 2936 observations from Pietrain (PI) pigs for IMF as well as 2261 observations from DL pigs for fat duality traits. All traits w ere measured via near-infrared-reflection spectroscopy (NIRS). The estimate d heritabilities of IMF were 0.50 and 0.38 for DL and PI, respectively. The estimates for FIF, FETTZ, SFA, MUFA and PUFA were 0.25, 0.47, 0.49, 0.13 a nd 0.69, respectively. Within the german landrace breed IMF showed no signi ficant genetic correlations with growth or carcass duality traits. In the P ietrain breed those correlations were slightly (-0.34) negative. On the oth er hand, FETTZ and FIF showed strong antagonistic relationships (between 0. 68 and 0.81) with carcass quality traits.