The European pig production industry needs to adapt to societal concerns regarding animal welfare. One of these concerns is the current castration practice of male piglets, which is primarily performed to avoid boar taint. Boar taint is an unpleasant and unwanted odor and flavor that can be found in the pork of entire male pigs. The compounds skatole, indole, and androstenone are the primary causes of boar taint, which can occur during cooking when the compounds evaporate. Recently, it has been hypothesized that with increasing levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the adipose tissue, the concentration of boar taint compounds decreases. Furthermore, we have shown that hydrolysable tannins included in pig diets tend to reduce the level of boar taint compounds in the adipose tissue. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine whether cumulative eects on the level of boar taint can be expected when both polyunsaturated fatty acids and hydrolysable tannins rich compounds are included in the diet. In addition, special emphasis was put on their eects on the gut microbiota composition. Investigating the gut bacterial
population, we observed that polyunsaturated fatty acids had no eects on gut microbiota, while hydrolysable tannins aected both the quantity and quality of bacteria in a way that could explain the observed boar taint levels.
M. Tretola, F. Maghin, P. Silacci, S. Ampuero and G. Bee; animals 2019, 9, 1063