Lipid metabolism, carcass characteristics and Longissimus dorsi muscle fatty acid composition of tropical crossbred beef cattle in response to Desmanthus spp. forage backgrounding
Mwangi, Felista W., Blignaut, David J.C., Charmley, Edward, Gardiner, Christopher P., Malau-Aduli, Bunmi S., Kinobe, Robert T., and Malau-Aduli, Aduli E.O. (2021) Lipid metabolism, carcass characteristics and Longissimus dorsi muscle fatty acid composition of tropical crossbred beef cattle in response to Desmanthus spp. forage backgrounding. Metabolites, 11 (12). 804.
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Abstract
Lipid metabolism, carcass characteristics and fatty acid (FA) composition of the Longissimus dorsi (loin eye) muscle were evaluated in tropical crossbred steers backgrounded on Desmanthus spp. (desmanthus) with or without feedlot finishing. It was hypothesized that steers backgrounded on isonitrogenous diets augmented with incremental proportions of desmanthus will produce carcasses with similar characteristics and FA composition. Forty-eight Brahman, Charbray and Droughtmaster crossbred beef steers were backgrounded for 140 days on Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) hay augmented with 0, 15, 30 or 45 percent desmanthus on dry matter basis. Lucerne (Medicago sativa) hay was added to the 0, 15 and 30 percent desmanthus diets to ensure that they were isonitrogenous with the 45 percent desmanthus diet. After backgrounding, the two heaviest steers in each pen were slaughtered and the rest were finished in the feedlot for 95 days before slaughter. Muscle biopsy samples were taken at the beginning and end of the backgrounding phase. Carcasses were sampled at slaughter for intramuscular fat (IMF) content, fat melting point (FMP) and FA composition analyses. Increasing the proportion of desmanthus in the diet led to a linear increase in docosanoic acid (p = 0.04) and omega-6/omega-3 polyunsaturated FA ratio (n-6/n-3 PUFA; p = 0.01), while docosahexaenoic acid decreased linearly (p = 0.01). Feedlot finishing increased hot carcass weight, subcutaneous fat depth at the P8 site and dressing percentage (p ≤ 0.04). The n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio was within the recommended < 5 for human diets. IMF was within the consumer-preferred ≥ 3% level for palatability. The hypothesis that steers backgrounded on isonitrogenous diets augmented with incremental proportions of desmanthus will produce similar carcass characteristics and FA composition was accepted. These findings indicate that a combination of tropical beef cattle backgrounding on desmanthus augmented forage and short-term feedlot finishing produces healthy and highly palatable meat.
Item ID: | 70986 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 2218-1989 |
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Copyright Information: | © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Date Deposited: | 28 Nov 2021 23:44 |
FoR Codes: | 30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3003 Animal production > 300303 Animal nutrition @ 100% |
SEO Codes: | 10 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 1004 Livestock raising > 100401 Beef cattle @ 100% |
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