Abstract
In many countries, male piglets are castrated shortly after birth to avoid the production of meat with an unpleasant smell and flavour known as boar taint. Extensive research has been carried out during the last 40 years to delineate compounds that are responsible for this problem. The most frequently candidates are androstenone, skatole and indole. However, other factors must be involved in causing boar taint, since a significant proportion of tainted pigs have unchanged levels of these three compounds. The aim of this thesis was to establish the conditions for a non-targeted metabolomics study and thereby identify new potential biomarkers that correlate with the appearance of boar taint. The adipose tissue of 16 nontainted and 17 strongly tainted pigs, selected by an earlier sensory panel analysis, was homogenized with methanol. After solid-phase extraction, the samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer using a nanoUPLC®- ESI-QTOF-HDMS™ system. By monitoring about 20’000 different masses with an accuracy of around 5 ppm, we found a metabolic pattern that is characteristic for the appearance of boar taint. A set of 16 masses can discriminate between tainted and non-tainted carcasses with a mean predictive accuracy of 90%. These results will be used to further develop a reliable test for the rapid detection of boar-tainted meat.
Olson, Malin Emelie Maria