Amino and fatty acid profile, chemical composition and pork quality in entire males, castrates and gilts

Forty-two pigs, entire males, surgical castrates and gilts, was randomly selected for the experiment. After reaching the average live weight of 105 kg, pigs were slaughtered. Significant differences (P <0.05) in contents of water and crude fat in muscle between entire males and castrates (74.44 vs 73.93%, 2.52 vs 3.14%), resp. of cholesterol between entire males, gilts and castrates (0.31, 0.33 vs 0.41%) were found. Significantly higher contents (P <0.05) of almost the all amino acids in entire males and gilts compared to castrates were observed. In muscle, castrates had more eicosanoic fatty acid than entire males, and vaccenic than gilts whilst gilts and entire males had higher content of linolenic acid than castrates (P <0.05). In adipose tissue, entire males had lower content (P <0.05) of myristic, stearic, palmitic, and total saturated fatty acids than castrates or both castrates and gilts (1.39 vs 1.45%, 14.88 vs 16.90%, 25.41 vs 26.83 and 26.27%, 43.40 vs 46.70 and 45.53%). At the same time, they showed greater amounts of oleic (36.71 vs 34.95%), total monounsaturated (43.58 vs 41.35%), linoleic (10.29 vs 9.45 and 9.56%), linolenic (0.65 vs 0.59%), total polyunsaturated (12.06 vs 11.06%), n-6 (10.69 vs 9.83%) and n-3 (0.78 vs 0.71 and 0.72%) fatty acids than castrates or both castrates and gilts. Also, PUFA/SFA ratio was more desirable in entire males than those of castrates and/or gilts (0.28 vs 0.24 and 0.25). Based on these results, meat and adipose fat from entire males seems to be more beneficial from the human health point of view.