Abstract Introduction An effective way of preventing undesirable boar taint in pork meat caused by the presence of androstenone, skatole and indole is surgical castration of piglets. This, however, arouses growing social opposition. An alternative method of inhibiting the development of unpleasant odour is immune castration. The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of both methods of castration for the elimination of the compounds responsible and to assess the suitability of oral fluid for pre-slaughter predictive testing for boar taint. Material and Methods The research material was pooled oral fluid and fat samples taken from gilts and surgically and immunologically castrated piglets. The samples were tested with a liquid chromatography– tandem mass spectrometry method developed in this research. Results The compounds giving rise to boar taint were found only sporadically above the accepted limits; only one sample of oral fluid contained skatole at a concentration above 200 μg L−1 and one contained indole more concentrated than 100 μg L−1. Indole above the limit value was also detected in one fat sample. In none of the tested samples was androstenone found. Conclusion The results indicate the similar effectiveness of both methods of piglet castration on the reduction of compounds generating boar taint. The usefulness of testing oral fluid for the ante-mortem prediction of boar taint has not been fully confirmed and further investigation is needed.

中文翻译：

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LC-MS/MS法评价公猪手术和免疫去势对口液和脂肪组织中公猪异味化合物的影响

摘要 引言 防止因雄烯酮、粪臭素和吲哚的存在而导致猪肉异味的有效方法是对仔猪进行手术去势。然而，这引起了越来越多的社会反对。抑制难闻气味发展的另一种方法是免疫去势。该研究的目的是比较两种去势方法在消除相关化合物方面的有效性，并评估口腔液体对公猪异味的屠宰前预测测试的适用性。材料和方法 研究材料是从后备母猪以及手术和免疫去势的小猪身上采集的口腔液和脂肪样本的汇集。使用本研究开发的液相色谱-串联质谱法对样品进行了测试。结果 导致公猪异味的化合物仅偶尔发现高于可接受的限度；只有一份口腔液样品含有浓度高于 200 μg L-1 的粪臭素，一份含有浓度高于 100 μg L-1 的吲哚。在一份脂肪样本中也检测到超过限值的吲哚。在所有测试样品中均未发现雄烯酮。结论 结果表明，两种仔猪去势方法在减少产生公猪异味的化合物方面的效果相似。检测唾液对公猪异味的宰前预测的有用性尚未得到充分证实，需要进一步研究。只有一份口腔液样品含有浓度高于 200 μg L-1 的粪臭素，一份含有浓度高于 100 μg L-1 的吲哚。在一份脂肪样本中也检测到超过限值的吲哚。在所有测试样品中均未发现雄烯酮。结论 结果表明，两种仔猪去势方法在减少产生公猪异味的化合物方面的效果相似。检测唾液对公猪异味的宰前预测的有用性尚未得到充分证实，需要进一步研究。只有一份口腔液样品含有浓度高于 200 μg L-1 的粪臭素，一份含有浓度高于 100 μg L-1 的吲哚。在一份脂肪样本中也检测到超过限值的吲哚。在所有测试样品中均未发现雄烯酮。结论 结果表明，两种仔猪去势方法在减少产生公猪异味的化合物方面的效果相似。检测唾液对公猪异味的宰前预测的有用性尚未得到充分证实，需要进一步研究。