The average gender proportion of male and female pigs was 50:50 for Duroc and Pietrain, and40:60 for L62. No pigs from different farms were mixed. Saliva sampleswere collected as described in the previous section immediately afterunloading at the slaughterhouse (approximately at 8:00; 0 h), and alsoafter 2.0 h (10:00), 4.0 h (12:00) and 6.0 h of lairage (14:00). Two ropeswere suspended in each pen (50 pigs per pen) and the amount of salivacollected with both was combined. A total of 48 saliva samples wereanalysed: 12 farms (4 per for each of the three genotypes) × 4 times.