Differentiation of the raw material of the Iberian pig meat industry based on the use of amplified fragment length polymorphism

The present study is the first step of the development of a new analytical technique to discriminate the genotypes of purebred Iberian and crossbred Iberian×Duroc pigs. A DNA test of breed identity has clear advantages for the protection of the brand name of high-prized products of purebred Iberian pigs. Amplified fragment length polymorphism procedure was used to analyze the genomic DNA samples of 77 Duroc and 80 Iberian pigs from the most representative populations. Thirteen primer combinations produced 588 amplified fragments. A total number of 139 fragments were polymorphic and 14 out of them were detected in Duroc and never in Iberian pigs. A panel of the nine most frequent markers allows the discrimination between purebred and crossbred animals. The values of the probability of exclusion of the pure Iberian origin (PEC) were 0.97 and 0.78, for crossbred individuals with 50 or 25% of Duroc genes, respectively.