EN
"Program of breeding and production of pigs in Poland", as elaborated and approved in 1996 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, assumes that a considerable part of productive animals, employed in commercial pig production will consist of hybrids, coming from the planned crossbreeding with the participation of foreign breeds. On the grounds of the conducted studies, we may state that the utilization of the Duroc breed as paternal component in single three-way crossing is fully justified due to very good results in respect of musculature, high weight of the most valuable cuts of carcass, approvable fatness of carcass, expressed by backfat thickness as well as by widely understood meat quality (nutritive value, physico-chemical traits and technological suitability of meat). The Duroc pigs may be also employed in single four-way crossing as crossbreds on paternal side with Pietrain breed (Duroc x Pietrain). Utilization of Duroc boars as paternal component in commercial crossbreeding eliminates negative properties of fresh meat (dryness, stringiness after thermal treatment) in favour of improving its juiciness, taste and tenderness via increase of the participation of intramuscular fat in muscular tissue. On the present level of knowledge, it is possible to state that the Duroc pigs, utilized in single three-way crossing - as paternal component - for production of the high-meat fatteners, constitute the pattern of fatteners, giving high-quality meat (HQ) from the point of view of the producer, consumer as well as of processor.