Influence of a severe reduction of the feeding level during the period immediately prior to free‐range fattening on performance and fat quality in Iberian pigs

BACKGROUND: Restricted feeding before fattening is a common procedure in the production of Iberian pigs, but little scientific information about its consequences on productive traits and characteristics of fat is available. This work studied the effect of a severe feeding restriction previous to the free‐range fattening on carcass and fat quality traits in Iberian pigs, considering two different feeding levels (high restriction: HR; versus maintenance level: M) before free‐range fattening. RESULTS: Animals from the M group showed longer and higher‐perimeter hams and tended (P < 0.10) to show higher slaughter and carcass weights, carcass inner length and loin and sirloin weights than HR ones. Animals from the HR group showed lower proportions of total saturated fatty acids (SFA) and higher total monounsaturated fatty acids in the backfat inner layer than those from the M group. Total polyunsaturated fatty acids in intramuscular neutral lipids were higher in HR pigs than in M ones, while stearic acid (C18:0) was lower. The average daily gain, fatty acid profile of the outer backfat layer and that of the hepatic polar and neutral lipids and the rheological features of backfat inner layer remained unaffected. CONCLUSION: A severe reduction of the feeding level previous to free‐range fattening does not produce compensatory growth, tends to diminish carcass quality and to slightly increase IMF content and improves the fatty acid profile of the inner backfat layer. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry