Fattening of heavy pigs in organic production systems for dry fermented sausage manufacturing as a possible strategy to preserve old, endangered breeds

For dry fermented sausage production, castrated heavy pigs of > 160 kg live weight are used due to the required fat quantity and quality. Today, most organic production systems use modern hybrids (Hy) with often insufficient fat features. The use of endangered breeds with high body fat synthesis capacity, e.g. Saddleback (Sa), could be an alternative with the additional benefit of maintaining biodiversity. In this study with a total of 132 castrates, the effects of 3 genotypes (Sa, Pietrain * Sa (PiSa), Hy) and 2 roughage sources (grass-clover silage, straw) on performance (PF), fatty acid pattern (FAT'), carcass (CQ)-, meat (MQ)- and product-quality (PQ) of dry fermented sausage were analysed (SCHWALM et al., 2013a und 2013b). It is found that PF, CQ, MQ, and FAT' are significantly influenced by the genotype but not by the roughage. Hy showed the best and Sa the poorest PF. Concerning MQ, there were no important differences between the genotypes, but Sa seemed to fit best for dry fermented sausage production in terms of CQ, FAT' and PQ in contrast to Hy. PiSa always ranked in the middle. It is concluded that crossbreeding of Sa with a modern sire line seems to be the best way to ensure the survival of an old, endangered pig breed via value creation by producing a premium pork speciality like dry fermented sausage.