Effects of dietary β‐alanine supplementation on growth performance, meat quality, carnosine content, amino acid composition and muscular antioxidant capacity in Chinese indigenous Ningxiang pig

Abstractβ-alanine has been demonstrated to improve carcass traits and meat quality of animals. However, no research has been found on the effects of dietaryβ-alanine in the meat quality control of finishing pigs, which are among the research focus. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietaryβ-alanine supplementation on growth performance, meat quality, carnosine content, amino acid composition  and muscular antioxidant capacity of Chinese indigenous Ningxiang pigs. The treatments contained a basal diet (control, CON) and a basal diet supplemented with 600 mg/kgβ-alanine. Each treatment group consisted of five pens, with five pigs per pen. Results showed that compared with CON, supplementalβ-alanine did not affect the final body weight, average daily gain, average daily feed intake and the feed-to-gain ratio of pigs. Dietaryβ-alanine supplementation tended to increase the pH45  min (p = 0.071) while decreasing the shear force (p = 0.085) and the drip loss (p = 0.091). Moreover, it improved (p <  0.05) the activities of glutathione peroxidase and catalase and lessened (p <  0.05) malondialdehyde concentration. Addedβ-alanine in diets of finishing pigs could enhance the concentrations of arginine, alanine, and glutamate (p <  0.05) in thelongissimus dorsi muscle and tended to raise the levels of cysteine, glycine and anserine (p = 0.060,p = 0.098 andp = 0.091 respectively). Taken together, our results s...
Source: Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition - Category: Zoology Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research