A parallel survey on the fatty acid composition in backfat and longissimus lumborum and comparison of their associations with growth and carcass traits in pigs

•A unique pig heterogeneous population generated by crossing four Chinese indigenous breeds and four international commercial breeds were investigated.•The fatty acid compositions of both muscle and backfat tissues from the sample population were measured and compared.•Growth and carcass traits showed stronger correlations with fatty acid compositions in backfat than in muscle.•Despite that the polyunsaturated fatty acids account for smaller proportion of total fatty acids, they generally displayed stronger correlations with growth and carcass traits than saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids.