FEEDING STRATEGIES FOR LOCAL BREEDS IN VIEW OF PRODUCT QUALITY

The effect of quantitative-qualitative modulation of diet on quality of meat and cured product in pig local breeds is reviewed, focusing on the effect on intramuscular fat (IMF) which is the most important of the meat traits. IMF does not develop the last among fat depots, so high level of feeding in advanced age favours subcutaneous fat deposition, whose commercial destination is often problematic also for the local pig. The compensatory growth, as consequence of re-alimentation after feeding restriction, attains better to local breeds than to conventional ones, because of the longer rearing period and the exploitation of natural resources in sylvo-pastoral system. This practice in Cinta Senese produces meat with higher cooking loss, fatter, less tender, darker and redder and subcutaneous fat richer in MUFA and PUFA n-3. However, the compensatory effect seems to depend also to the age when fattening starts. Knowledge on protein requirements in the local breeds is less available but researches on Iberian and Cinta Senese pig highlighted that only very low dietary protein content (below 9%) produced significant effect on overall fatness and on some meat traits. On other hand, that protein content is usual in the diet of sylvo-pastoral feeding system, based on grass and acorn without any aminoacidic integration.