Effects of Age/Weight and Castration on Fatty Acids Composition in Pork Fat and the Qualities of Pork and Pork Fat in Meishan X Large White Pigs (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Meat and meat product qualities can be seriously affected by the fatty acid composition of the muscle and adipose tissues. The composition and quality of fat in pigs can be manipulated through extrinsic and intrinsic factors. For decades, researchers and producers have been using factors such as age or weight at slaughter, sex, diet and genetics to modify meat and fat qualities to produce meat products to meet the demand of consumers [1]. It will not be possible to generalise a universally agreed slaughter weight for pigs because the appropriate slaughter weights depend on the economic considerations such as feed costs and market [2].