The project aims to maintain high meat quality and good animal health in pig production. New meat quality defects in pigs, affecting the ham muscle, has been reported in several countries, including Norway. These defects lead to lower meat prices and issues with cured ham products. Defects can occur both postmortem and in live animals, and are believed to be caused by molecular and genetic factors.
Norsvin's breeding program already includes important quality and health traits, but the lack of rapid diagnostic tools has hindered the development of new genetic traits that can counteract these defects. To address this, meat scientists, veterinarians, and geneticists are collaborating to use new tools such as a bioimpedance monitoring tool and an AI-based diagnostic model for muscle pathologies.
The goal is to identify genes and mutations associated with quality defects and muscle pathologies and select for favorable genotypes. This will ensure the production of high-quality pork and improve animal health. The project, known as the HAM project, involves multidisciplinary specialists and aims to strengthen Norwegian R&D environments and translate research into industrial applications. Norsvin's success has led to exports of pig genetics to 51 countries, and the goal is to become a world leader in animal welfare and sustainability. The project addresses sustainability challenges by reducing food waste, improving food safety, and reducing greenhouse gas emission, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The project has the following partners: Norsvin (Project owner), Topigs Norsvin, Animalia, ARD Innovation AS and the University of Oslo.
Maintaining high meat quality and ensuring good animal health are growing concerns for pork producers, trade, and consumers. Recently, pork quality defects have been reported for many countries, including Norway, and often affect ham cuts. Affected meat is sold at lower prices, and high value cured products can fall apart. While meat quality defects can emerge postmortem, they also have been linked to skeletal muscle pathologies in live production animals. Recent pork defects are thought to be caused by a range of factors, including molecular and genetic anomalies. Although Norsvin’s breeding program already includes key quality and health traits, the lack of rapid and suitable diagnostics has hindered efforts to establish novel genetics that confer robustness against severe ham defects and specific muscle diseases. We are addressing this challenge by collaborating with meat scientists, veterinarians and innovators, who recently established a rapid bioelectrical meat quality monitoring tool and a high-throughput, AI-based microscopic diagnostic model for muscle pathologies. We will employ these tools in pig breeding to produce high-quality pork from healthier muscles. Our goals are to identify genes and mutations associated with prevalent quality defects and muscle pathologies, and to establish novel genotypes that are more resistant to these issues. This approach will ensure the production of high-quality pork, a marked reduction of food waste and will improve animal health. Hence, integrating novel genetics into Norsvin's breeding program, will not only increase Norsvin’s sales, but will make a significant contribution to higher sustainability and profitability in the entire pork production chain.
