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Majorcan Black Pig (MBP) is a native breed from Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, characterized by its high rusticity and adaptation to Mediterranean climatic conditions, with ability to exploit the scarce natural resources. This pig population had a great importance in the economy and cultural heritage until mid-20th century. The introduction of leaner pig breeds, the impact of different diseases and rural migration led to a progressive decline of this breed. Recognized as an endangered autochthonous pig breed in Spain, MBP has a conservation and improvement program supported by Balearic Government technical services. The current census is close to 80 farms with more than 1,300 breeding pigs. MBP farms are managed in extensive conditions and the feeding regime is based on pasture, cereals, legumes, figs, almonds, acorns and Mediterranean shrubs, with eventual supplementation based on barley and green peas. Performances are largely dependent on available natural resources; mean productivity is 16 piglets/sow-year and a post-weaning growth around 500 g/day until the slaughtering target weight (140-160 kg). Compared with commercial breeds, MBP has a largely higher subcutaneous fat depot, with carcasses showing back fat depths reaching 7 cm and flare fat weights usually up to 6 kg. Important differences are also observed in meat quality, with the loin of MBP presenting higher intramuscular fat content (~8%), darker colour, slightly lower shear force, higher levels of MUFA (~50%) and lower levels of PUFA (<10%). The main products are the 'Sobrassada de Porc Negre Mallorquí', a specialty fat-rich cured sausage granted with a PGI certification, and the roasted 'porcella' (3 month purebred piglets). The proportion of animals devoted either to produce 'porcella' or to be fattened until a heavy slaughter weight depends upon the available natural resources. This practice represents a really sustainable production system. Funded by European Union's H2020 RIA program (grant agreement no. 634476).

The availability of high-throughput whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data illustrating differences among different pig breed genomes opened a new area of genomic research focused on variation caused by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), small scale variation and structural variants which may all contribute to phenotypic variation among pig breeds. In our study (performed within TREASURE project) we re-analysed WGS-based data sets from more than 20 breeds, including commercial and local breeds as well as some wild boar genomes, deposited in publicly available databases. This bioinformatics tool enables discovery of new SNPs, estimation of allele frequencies (genotyping by sequencing) at candidate loci and identification of structural variation in a wide range of pig breeds. The analysis underlined the relevance of structural differences at KIT and MC1R locus involved in colour pattern formation, as well as LEPR locus associated with fatness, fatty acid metabolism and intramuscular fat composition. This approach allows discovery of important genomic differences between commercial breeds and local breeds which are analysed in the frame of the TREASURE project. Extensive mining of publicly available genomic data can together with the newly generated genomic information from local breeds, significantly contribute to the detailed characterisation of animal genetic resources present in local pig breeds. Funded by European Union's H2020 RIA program (grant agreement No. 634476).

Traits of interest concerning reproductive performance, growth performance, carcass and meat quality of local pig breeds involved in H2020 project TREASURE were collected from the available literature, unpublished data available to partners or results recorded in the experiments within the project. The survey revealed great variability in the availability and quality of information. Reproductive performance of local pig breeds is lower than in conventional modern pig breeds, not only due to their genetic background but also due to the management. Data on growth rates reflect the heterogeneity of different production systems and feeding regimes used. The growth potential of the majority of local pig breeds is not well exploited, and their nutritional requirements are not known. Generally, local pig breeds show low muscular development and high potential for fat tissue deposition and are slaughtered at older age and weight, which results in higher intramuscular fat and more intense colour of meat. However, considerable differences exist between them and their potentials, not only in their production systems. For many local pig breeds studied in the project, the collected information provides the first in-depth overview of their productive performance in their preserved, present-day phenotype. ; The research was conducted within the project TREASURE, which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 634476. The content of this chapter reflects only the authors' view and the European Union Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. Core financing of Slovenian Research Agency is acknowledged (grant P4-0133 for MČP, NBL, UT and MŠ).

12 páginas, 5 tablas ; The aim of this study was to describe the carcass characteristics and the meat quality of the roosters from the autochthonous Mos breed slaughtered at 8 months. With comparative purpose roosters from hybrid line Sasso T44 were used in this study. Birds were reared on their typical production system (extensive indoor or barns and finishing diet whit corn). Both live and carcass weight were higher for commercial breed (p<0.001). Drumstick, thigh and wing percentages were greater in Mos breed than in Sasso T-44, while breast was similar for both genotypes. Only significant differences in cholesterol and alpha-tocopherol content between genotypes have been found, whereas finishing feeding treatment had effect on moisture, intramuscular fat content, cholesterol, tocopherol isomers and meat yellowness. Unsaturated fatty acids constituted the main contribution to total amount of fatty acid (FA), where monounsaturated oleic acid was the major compound, and found higher concentrations in commercial breed. Mos breed showed higher amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and lower amounts of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) than Sasso T-44. The relation PUFA/SFA was above 0.68 for Mos breed and was slightly lower for the other genotype. In conclusion, the carcass morphology and meat quality was influenced by breed and finishing feeding with corn. ; Authors are grateful to Xunta de Galicia (the Regional Government) for its financial support (PGIDIT09MRU001CT). ; Peer reviewed

1 page, 1 figure.--The Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science constitute summaries of papers presented at the Society's Annual Conference (Southport, UK, 30 March-1 April 2009). ; The amount and fatty acid (FA) composition of beef intramuscular fat (IMF) are key factors that influence technological and sensory quality, especially shelf-life (lipid and pigment oxidation) and flavour. Furthermore, consumers are interested in the fat composition of meat, as nutritional guidelines are recommending a lower saturated FA (SFA) intake due to its association with cardiovascular diseases. The amount and composition of ruminant IMF, which depends on factors such as the genetic origin of the animals, feeding regime, age or live weight, influences the final quality of the product, which also explains the increasing interest in defining the FA profile of meat. However, quantitative chemical techniques for the determination of FA involve extraction of total lipids and determination of FA methyl esters by gas chromatography, so that this procedure is costly, time-consuming and generates hazardous waste. The use of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) is increasing in food analysis because it offers several advantages over conventional methods, giving fast, non-destructive, clean and cost effective measurements. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test the on-line estimation of the concentration of major individual FA (C16:0, C18:0 and C18:1) and main groups of FA (SFA, monounsaturated FA (MUFA) and polyunsaturated FA (PUFA)) of beef IMF using NIR, by direct application of a fibreoptic probe to the M. longissimus thoracis with no prior sample treatment. ; We are grateful to the Scottish Government for funding the research and Scotbeef, QMS, BCF and Signet for their substantial support. ; Peer reviewed

Heat stress is associated with impaired meat quality and disruption of redox balance. This study investigated the effect of chronic exposure to high temperature on meat quality and antioxidant markers of muscles (longissimus lumborum and gluteus medius) of growing Iberian pigs. Twenty-four pure Iberian pigs were allocated during 28 days to one of three treatments (n = 8/treatment): thermoneutral conditions (20C) and ad libitum feeding (TN), heat stress conditions (30C) and ad libitum feeding (HS) and thermoneutral and pair-fed with HS (TN-pf). Muscles of the HS group had greater intramuscular fat content than the TN-pf group and higher Zn levels than TN and TN-pf, whereas differences on fatty acid composition were negligible. Heat exposure did not affect pH, color coordinates of redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) and MDA values but had a positive influence on lightness and drip losses. Moreover, chronic heat stress stimulated the activity of antioxidant defenses SOD, CAT and GPx. The statistical factor analysis adequately classified the muscles studied, but was unable to differentiate samples according with treatments. Findings of the present study support an adaptive response of the Iberian pig to high temperatures and show the high Iberian meat quality even under adverse climate situations. ; This research has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government through Research Project AGL2016-80231-R. This work is part of the doctoral thesis of Zaira Pardo, Ph.D. student from the Official Doctoral Program "Nutrition and Food Sciences" of the Granada University, who received a grant FPI with reference BES-2017-081486.

The main characteristics of the Iberian breed, an autochthonous pig breed of the Iberian Peninsula, are presented in this chapter along with the results of a literatura review on productive traits. Reproductive performance was estimated by sow age at first parturition, litters per sow and year, piglets alive per litter, piglet weight at birth and at weaning, percentage of stillborn per litter, mortality at weaning, lactation length and farrowing interval. For growth performance, average daily gain and daily feed intake during lactation and in different growing phases are provided. Carcass traits were evaluated by age and weight at slaughter, hot carcass weight, carcass yield, backfat thickness measurements, muscle thickness and loin eye area. Meat quality traits of longissimus muscle (pH, objective colour measurements and intramuscular fat) were also assessed. The main part of the studies considered simulated practical production conditions in Iberian pig rearing although others evaluated a defined growing period, sometimes quite far from the usual comercial slaughter weight of this breed. Therefore, some figures should be interpreted with caution. Although a considerable number of studies on Iberian pig were included in the current review, scientific papers on reproductive performance and some meat quality parameters are still rather scarce. ; The research was conducted within the project TREASURE, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 634476. The content of this paper reflects only the author's view, and the European Union Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Deer venison is increasingly valued as a natural meat. This study examines the three main sources of venison: farmed venison from New Zealand (NZ), the world's leading producer, and wild deer from Spain (SP), the second largest producer, which mainly supplies venison from traditional autumn–winter driven hunts (monteria), involving packs of dogs, and a smaller proportion culled through summer selective stalking. Meat from NZ contained more protein, lower shear force and lower n-6/n-3 ratio (P < 0.01). Spanish meat had a greater content of total, essential and non-essential amino acids (P < 0.01). Meat from deer culled in winter had lower intramuscular fat and saturated fatty acids (FA) but higher polyunsaturated FA (P < 0.01) and pH (P < 0.001) than meat from summer stalked deer. Therefore, venison presents differences by country of origin for composition, FA and texture that are likely to affect its health characteristics. Anomalies observed in meat between the winter driven hunt and non-stressful summer stalking may be attributed to the level of death stress in the case of variables such as pH. However, the effect on fat and mineral composition seems to be seasonal, depending respectively on wild diet or cyclic osteoporosis in males. ; This work was supported by project no. SBPLY/19/180501/000115 supported this work (funded by Counselling of Education, Culture and Sports of Castilla-La Mancha) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy (Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad) within the Estate program of Research, Innovation and Development oriented towards Challenges of Society, and co-funded by the European Union (reference number RTC-2016-5327-2). This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy (Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad) within the Estate programme of Research, Innovation and Development oriented towards Challenges of Society, within the Framework Plan of Scientific, Technical Research, and Innovation 2013–2016 and co-funded by the European Union (reference number RTC-2016-5327-2). José M. Lorenzo is member of the MARCARNE network, funded by CYTED (ref. 116RT0503). ; Peer reviewed

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of slaughter body weight on the quantitative characteristics of carcasses and the yield of commercial cuts of young Nellore bulls. Twenty-four non-castrated, 11-month-old, feedlot-fed Nellore bulls were distributed in a completely randomized design, in three treatments: 350 kg, 400 kg or 450 kg of body weight at slaughter (SBW). Slaughter was performed in a commercial slaughterhouse. The data were analyzed by an ANOVA followed by a Tukey test (p ? 0.05). SBW had no relationship with dry matter intake (6.05 kg/day or 75.74 g/kg BW0.75), feed efficiency (22.16) or feed conversion (4.67). Average daily gain was different depending on the SBW. Animal slaughtered at 350 kg had gained 1.17 kg/day, whereas animals slaughtered at 400 and 450 kg had gained 1.49 and 1.47 kg/day, respectively. Cold carcass weight increased with SBW (189.50, 209.33, and 242.39, respectively). Other carcass characteristics, like pH at 48 h (5.75), cold dressing carcass (52.61%), chilling losses (1.79%), fat thickness (5.54 mm), marbling (3.34 points), intramuscular fat (6.68%), longissimus muscle area (63.10 cm2) and sarcomere length (1.60 ?m), were not affected by SBW, but SBW increased cold carcass weight. The treatments had effects on the primary and commercial cut weights. However, the cut yields for the forequarter (39.84%), hindquarter (47.82%) and side-cut (12.34%), and the secondary cuts: chuck (14.38%), hump steak (1.94%), shoulder clod (16.97%), brisket point end (5.56%), neck steak (1.00%), striploin (7.77%), outside flat (5.30%), topside (9.36%), tenderloin (2.16%), flank steak (3.41%), eyeround (2.67%), rump tail (1.20%), rump eye (3.89%), shank (4.44%), knuckle (5.25%) and rump cap (1.40%), were not affected by SBW. SBW did not influence (p > 0.05) the commercial cut compositions for all cuts in the forequarter and hindquarter. Finishing young bulls in a feedlot is a strategy to produce beef with reduced feed costs. After all, the slaughter body weight (350, 400 or 450 kg) influenced the quantitative characteristics of the carcass; however, it did not affect the yield of commercial cuts from young Nellore bulls.

Traditional Iberian pig production is characterized for having a fattening period with a feeding based on acorn and pastures. During the previous growing period, the feeding is restricted to avoid undesirable weight gains. However, this procedure could cause feeding stress. The use of ad libitum diets based on olive by-products during the growing period may be an alternative to avoid this stress. Two diets based on olive by-products, one incorporating dry olive pulp in the feed (DD) and the other one incorporating olive cake in wet form (WD) were compared with a control standard diet group (CD). CD and DD diets were supplied once a day and WD diet was supplied ad libitum and supplemented with a specific feed given once a day. Comparisons were performed using ANOVA for: growth, backfat fatty acid profile, carcass composition, percentage of intramuscular fat (%IMF) and other quality meat traits (thaw, cook and centrifuge force losses, shear force, marbling, Minolta colours and myoglobin concentration). No significant differences between the treatment groups were observed for most of the traits. Although animals fed with DD and WD diets grew slower than those fed with CD during the growing period, no differences in the total average daily gain were observed. DD animals showed a higher carcass yield and less %IMF in loin. Olive-cake diets caused higher levels of unsaturation than CD one after the growing period. Lower centrifuge force losses were observed in WD than in CD. DD samples were paler and less red-coloured and has lower myoglobin content than CD and WD ones. Results (of this study within project TREASURE) suggest that WD diet could be a suitable feeding for growing period in traditional Iberian pig production since negative effects on growth, carcass and quality traits were not observed in the current study. Funded by European Union's H2020 RIA program (Grant agreement no. 634476).

We have used a RNA-seq approach to investigate differential expression in the skeletal muscle of swine (N = 52) with divergent lipid profiles i.e. HIGH (increased intramuscular fat and muscle saturated and monounsaturated fatty acid contents, higher serum lipid concentrations and fatness) and LOW pigs (leaner and with an increased muscle polyunsaturated fatty acid content). The number of mRNAs and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) expressed in the porcine gluteus medius muscle were 18,104 and 1,558, respectively. At the nominal level of significance (P-value ≤ 0.05), we detected 1,430 mRNA and 12 non-coding RNA (ncRNA) transcripts as differentially expressed (DE) in the gluteus medius muscle of HIGH vs LOW pigs. This smaller contribution of ncRNAs to differential expression may have biological and technical reasons. We performed a second analysis, that was more stringent (P-value ≤ 0.01 and fold-change ≥ 1.5), and only 96 and 0 mRNA-and ncRNA-encoding genes happened to be DE, respectively. The subset of DE mRNA genes was enriched in pathways related with lipid (lipogenesis and triacylglycerol degradation) and glucose metabolism. Moreover, HIGH pigs showed a more lipogenic profile than their LOW counterparts. ; Part of the research presented in this publication was funded by grants AGL2013-48742-C2-1-R and AGL2013-48742-C2-2-R awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity. We also acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity for the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa 2016–2019 (SEV-2015-0533) grant awarded to the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics. The authors are indebted to Selección Batallé S.A. for providing the animal material. We gratefully acknowledge to J. Reixach (Selección Batallé) and J. Soler (IRTA) for their collaboration in the experimental protocols. Tainã F Cardoso was funded with a fellowship from the CAPES Foundation-Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (MEC) of the Federal Government of Brazil. ; Peer reviewed

[Background]: The molecular basis of compensatory growth in monogastric animals has not yet been fully explored. Herewith, in this study we aim to determine changes in the pig skeletal muscle transcriptome profile during compensatory growth following a feed restriction period. A RNA-Seq experiment was performed with a total of 24 females belonging to a Duroc commercial line. Half of the animals received either a restricted (RE) or ad libitum (AL) diet during the first fattening period (60–125 d of age). After that, all gilts were fed ad libitum for a further ~30 d until the age of ~155 d, when animals were slaughtered and samples of gluteus medius muscle were harvested to perform RNA-Seq analyses and intramuscular fat content determination. ; [Results]: During the period following food restriction, RE animals re-fed ad libitum displayed compensatory growth, showed better feed conversion rate and tended to deposit more subcutaneous fat than AL fed animals. Animals were slaughtered in the phase of accelerated growth, when RE animals had not completely compensated the performance of AL group, showing lower live and carcass weights. At intramuscular level, RE gilts showed a higher content of polyunsaturated fatty acids during the compensatory growth phase. The comparison of RE and AL expression profiles allowed the identification of 86 (ǀlog2Fold-Changeǀ > 1, padj < 0.05) differentially expressed (DE) genes. A functional categorization of these DE genes identified AMPK Signaling as the most significantly enriched canonical pathway. This kinase plays a key role in the maintenance of energy homeostasis as well as in the activation of autophagy. Among the DE genes identified as components of AMPK Signaling pathway, five out of six genes were downregulated in RE pigs. ; [Conclusions]: Animals re-fed after a restriction period exhibited a less oxidative metabolic profile and catabolic processes in muscle than animals fed ad libitum. The downregulation of autophagy observed in the skeletal muscle of pigs undergoing compensatory growth may constitute a mechanism to increase muscle mass thus ensuring an accelerated growth rate. These results reveal that the downregulation of AMPK Signaling plays an important role in compensatory growth in pigs. ; The study was funded by grants AGL2013–48742-C2–1-R and AGL2013–48742-C2–2-R, awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (MINECO). We also acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity for the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa 2016–2019 (SEV-2015-0533) grant awarded to the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG). Maria Ballester is financially supported by a Ramon y Cajal contract (RYC-2013-12573) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Tainã Figueiredo Cardoso was funded with a fellowship from the CAPES Foundation-Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education, Ministry of Education of the Federal Government of Brazil. Rayner Gonzalez-Prendes was funded with a FPU Ph.D. grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU12/00860). Thanks also to the CERCA Programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya. ; Peer reviewed

The objective of this study was to evaluate the fatty acid profile of duodenal digesta (experiment I) and of meat of beef cattle (experiment II) fed diets containing different levels of concentrate (220, 400, 590 and 790 g of concentrate/kg of dry matter of the diets). The experiment I was conducted with four Charolais-Nellore steers (460 ± 18.2 kg of BW), with a T-shaped duodenal cannula, using a double 4 × 4 Latin square as an experimental design. In experiment II, 16 crossbred Charolais-Nellore young bulls (192.44 ± 18.2 kg of BW) were randomly distributed in the experimental treatments (220, 400, 590 and 790 g of concentrate/kg of dry matter of the diets). The diets were isonitrogenous (120 g of crude protein/kg of dry matter). The intramuscular fat content was used as a covariant for the statistical analysis of the meat fatty acid profile. The duodenal content of fatty acid C17:0 decreased with increase of concentrate levels, while its content in the meat presented a quadratic variation with the increase of the concentrate levels of the diets, being the lowest values observed for the diet with 400 g of concentrate. The duodenal content of fatty acid C18:1 trans-11 decreased, whereas the content of this fatty acid in the meat increased with the increase of the dietary concentrate levels. The increase in the level of concentrate reduced the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids C18:3 n-3, C20:3 n-6, C20:4 n-6, and C20:5 n-3 EPA in both the duodenal digesta and meat. No difference was observed in the n-6/n-3 fatty acids ratio (mean of 13.96) of the meat between diets. The elevation of the level of concentrate in confinement diets reduces the nutraceutical quality of the meat of Charolais-Nellore young bulls slaughtered at 14-16 months of age due to the reduction of the polyunsaturated fatty acids content important for human health.

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of metabolizable energy (ME) levels in diets with high digestible lysine concentration on performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of barrows from 95 to 158 days of age. Eighty commercial hybrid barrows (50 ± 1.82 kg) selected for lean meat deposition, were assigned to four dietary treatments (3,150, 3,235, 3,320, and 3,400 kcal EM kg-1) in a randomized design with 10 replicate pens per treatment and two pigs per pen. From 95 to 116 days of age, we observed no effects of ME on final body weight (FBW), average daily gain (ADG), metabolizable energy intake (MEI), and feed conversion (F: G). Average daily feed intake (ADFI) decreased linearly with increasing ME levels (? = 5.79961 - 0.00096790X - r2 = 0.89). From 95 to 137 days of age, no effects of ME were observed on final body weight (FBW), average daily gain (ADG), metabolizable energy intake (MEI), and feed conversion (F: G). Average daily feed intake (ADFI) decreased linearly with increasing ME (?= 6.1176 - 0.001X - r2= 0.97). From 95 to 158 days, of age no effects of ME were observed on FBW and ADG. Dietary ME influenced the ADFI and F: G, which decreased linearly with increasing ME concentrations (?= 8.12951 - 0.00149X - r2= 0.99; ?= 6.0914 - 0.001X - r² = 0.75, respectively). There was a linear increase in loin eye area (LEA) with increasing ME (? = - 29.851 + 0.0207 X - r² = 0.87). Backfat thickness, pH, and temperature, measured at different times after slaughter (0 min, 45 min, 3 h, and 24 h), were not affected by dietary ME. The level of ME also did not affect the meat quality parameters Color L*, Color a*, Color b*, Warner-Bratzler shear force, thaw water losses, cooking water losses, sum of water losses, intramuscular fat content, and TBARS. Diets with 3,400 kcal kg-1 ME, corresponding to 2.75, 2.57, and 2.31 g digestible lysine/Mcal of ME for pigs from 95 to 116, 116 to 137, and 95 to 158 days of age, respectively, resulted in best performance and carcass traits, without negative effects on meat quality.

[Background]: The identification of genes differentially expressed in the skeletal muscle of pigs displaying distinct growth and fatness profiles might contribute to identify the genetic factors that influence the phenotypic variation of such traits. So far, the majority of porcine transcriptomic studies have investigated differences in gene expression at a global scale rather than at the mRNA isoform level. In the current work, we have investigated the differential expression of mRNA isoforms in the gluteus medius (GM) muscle of 52 Duroc HIGH (increased backfat thickness, intramuscular fat and saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids contents) and LOW pigs (opposite phenotype, with an increased polyunsaturated fatty acids content). ; [Results]: Our analysis revealed that 10.9% of genes expressed in the GM muscle generate alternative mRNA isoforms, with an average of 2.9 transcripts per gene. By using two different pipelines, one based on the CLC Genomics Workbench and another one on the STAR, RSEM and DESeq2 softwares, we have identified 10 mRNA isoforms that both pipelines categorize as differentially expressed in HIGH vs LOW pigs (P-value < 0.01 and ±0.6 log2fold-change). Only five mRNA isoforms, produced by the ITGA5, SEMA4D, LITAF, TIMP1 and ANXA2 genes, remain significant after correction for multiple testing (q-value < 0.05 and ±0.6 log2fold-change), being upregulated in HIGH pigs. ; [Conclusions]: The increased levels of specific ITGA5, LITAF, TIMP1 and ANXA2 mRNA isoforms in HIGH pigs is consistent with reports indicating that the overexpression of these four genes is associated with obesity and metabolic disorders in humans. A broader knowledge about the functional attributes of these mRNA variants would be fundamental to elucidate the consequences of transcript diversity on the determinism of porcine phenotypes of economic interest. ; Part of the research presented in this publication was funded by grants AGL2013–48742-C2–1-R and AGL2013–48742-C2–2-R awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity and grant 2014 SGR 1528 from the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants of the Generalitat de Catalunya. We also acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity for the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa 2016–2019 (SEV-2015-0533) grant awarded to the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG). Tainã Figueiredo Cardoso was funded with a fellowship from the CAPES Foundation-Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education, Ministry of Education of the Federal Government of Brazil. Rayner Gonzalez-Prendes was funded with a FPU Ph.D. grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU12/00860). Thanks also to the CERCA Programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya. ; Peer reviewed