Profile

My field of research is concentrated on the influence of production conditions and genetic variation on meat and eating quality with special focus on boar taint and flavour development in meat from both sexes.

Boar taint can be influenced through the feed, the immediate environment and the heredity. My research is at present focused on the influence on meat and flavour quality of pork from entire males and female pigs by feeding bioactive feedstuffs such as crude and dried chicory roots and lupines.

Six projects - three of which are concluded - focus on the above issues. These projects are entitled: 1) The eating quality of the meat and the microbial metabolism in the intestinal tract in pigs are affected by special feedstuffs (Brussels sprouts and inulin/rape); 2) Pig production systems; 3) The significance of organic pig production for meat and eating quality - harmonization of consumer and producer interests; 4) Effect of bioactive crops (e.g. crude and dried chicory) on parasites and meat and eating quality of female and entire male pigs (patent application); 5) Pig feeding under organic conditions especially considering nutrient utilization and product quality and health (subtitle: Reduced protein in the feed for finishing pigs fed diets based on triticale and different amounts of lupine); 6) An organic research project with entire male and female pigs deals with the boar taint pattern during the growth period from 50 to 100 kg live weight in entire male pigs of the crossbreed combinations DLY and HLY kept in groups of either one or both sexes.

In the years 1991-1998, boar taint in meat and fat from entire males has been a major theme in my research. Boar taint has proven to be influenced by a complexed interaction between the environment, feed composition, feed additives and feed preparation as well as genetics. Particularly the interaction between entire males' social behaviour, sexual maturity and genetics as well as the question whether major genes influence a possible interaction between skatole and androstenon concentration in certain breeds are topics for further investigation.

My Ph.D.-thesis (in Danish) is entitled "The influence of environmental factors and genotypes on boar taint (skatole) in sows, gilts and boars" and I am author/coauthor of chapters in the book "Skatole and boar taint" published by the Danish Meat Research Institute, Roskilde (1998, ed. W. Klinth Jensen). The book gives a survey of the research performed within this area from 1990 till 1997 inDenmark. For further information, see my CV and publication list, which also includes publications on pig behaviour and development of electronic identification equipment, primarily for pigs.