Development of a quantitative method for the simultaneous analysis of the boar taint compounds androstenone, skatole and indole in porcine serum and plasma by means of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry

•First serum and plasma analysis for the three boar taint compounds simultaneously.•Optimized and validated UHPLC-HR-Orbitrap-MS method.•Fast, specific and sensitive quantification of indole, skatole and androstenone.•Reliable correlation assessment between blood and fat thanks to method-alignment.•Novel tool to evaluate entire boar-raising strategies as alternative for castration. Boar taint is an off-odour occurring while heating meat or fat from boars. A method detecting the three compounds (androstenone, skatole and indole) simultaneously in blood would offer substantial advantages since it would allow monitoring the impact of rearing strategies. Therefore, a UHPLC-HR-Orbitrap-MS analysis method is optimized and validated for the quantification of these compounds in plasma or serum. Sample pre-treatment involved an extraction with diethylether followed by a centrifugal filtration (30kDa). Limits of detection and quantification varied between 0.5 and 1μgL−1 and 2 and 3μgL−1 for the three compounds, respectively. Besides, an excellent repeatability (RSD