Effect of vitamin E supplementation on growth performance, carcass characteristics and intramuscular fatty acid composition of Longissimus dorsi muscle in Tan’ sheep
Author
Zhao,Tianzhang
Luo,Hailing
Zhang,Yuwei
Liu,Kong
Jia,Huina
Chang,Yanfei
Jiao,Lijuan
Gao,Weimin
Abstract
The beneficial effects on meat quality of adding vitamin E to diets have been extensively studied in cattle and lamb. However, how supplemental vit E affects the performance and meat quality of ’Tan’ sheep has not been reported. Thirty-five male lambs of ’Tan’ sheep (20-30 d after weaning) with similar body weight were randomly divided into five groups of seven each to receive a basal diet plus five levels of vit E supplementation: 0 (control group, CG), 20, 100, 200, and 2000 IU d-1 lamb-1. The results showed: 1) no differences were observed in animal growth performance between CG and vit E treated groups (VG) (P > 0.05); 2) vit E supplementation levels over 200 IU d-1 lamb¹ dramatically suppressed subcutaneous fat deposition and similarly that above 100 IU d-1 lamb-1 considerably reduced drip loss and pH 24 h of Longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle in VG lambs compared to those of CG (P < 0.01), but with no significant effect on other carcass characteristics (P > 0.05); 3) although vit E supplementation generally did not affect the fatty acid composition of intramuscular lipids in LD muscle, the percentage of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and the ratio of n-6/n-3 PUFA were significantly enhanced (P < 0.05) and an increasing tendency (P < 0.1) for both total PUFA proportion and the ratio of PUFA/saturated fatty acids (SFA) was also observed in ’Tan’ sheep lambs treated with vit E. In conclusion, vit E supplementation of male ’Tan’ sheep lambs did not influence growth performance, significantly reduced subcutaneous fat deposition, drip loss, pH 24 h and tended to improve fatty acid profile of LD muscle.