This study aimed to evaluate the effects of vitamin E (VE), ferulic acid (FA) and their combination supplementation on meat quality and antioxidant capacities of finishing pigs. Sixty barrows were randomly allocated to four experimental diets using a 2×2 factorial arrangement with 2 VE supplemental levels (0 or 400 mg/kg) and 2 FA supplemental levels (0 or 100 mg/kg) in basal diets. After 28 days, six pigs per treatment were slaughtered. The results showed that VE supplementation increased loin eye area of pigs (p<0.05) and FA supplementation increased pH45min value (p<0.05). The interaction of FA×VE was observed in shear force of longissimus dorsi muscle (p<0.05). Moreover, supplementation with VE decreased hepatic and sarcous malondialdehyde (MDA) content, increased hepatic glutathione (GSH) content and sarcous glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity (p<0.05). Additionally, supplementation with FA increased hepatic GSH-Px activity and decreased sarcous MDA content (p<0.05). However, dietary treatment did not affect the expression of genes related to nuclear factor, erythroid 2-like 2 (NFE2L2) pathway. These results suggest that dietary FA and VE could partially improve meat quality and antioxidant capacity of finishing pigs, but not by activating NFE2L2 pathway under the normal conditions of farming.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of creatine monohydrate (CMH) supplementation on meat quality and postmortem energy metabolism of finishing pigs. In total, 48 healthy Duroc-Large White cross castrated male pigs were randomly allocated into two treatments, and fed either a CHM-free basal diet or a basal diet with CMH supplementation (0.8%) for 14 days. At the end of the experiment, six pigs from each treatment were weighed individually and slaughtered. The muscle from longissimus dorsi was collected to evaluate the meat quality and energy metabolismrelated parameters. The results showed that CMH supplementation did not affect the loin eye area, back fat depth or dressing percentage (P > 0.05). The muscle pH 45 min was higher, whereas drip loss and cooking loss were lower in the CMH supplementation group (P < 0.05). CMH supplementation increased the concentrations of creatine (P < 0.05), adenosine triphosphate (P < 0.05), adenosine diphosphate (P < 0.01) and creatine kinase activity (P < 0.05), and decreased the concentration of lactic acid (P < 0.05), and the activities of lactate dehydrogenase (P < 0.05) and pyruvate kinase (P < 0.05) in muscle postmortem. However, no differences were observed between groups for chemical composition, textural characteristics and glycolytic potential of longissimus dorsi muscle (P > 0.05). These findings suggest that dietary supplementation with CMH during the finishing period in pigs could delay early pH decline and decrease the rate of glycolysis in postmortem longissimus dorsi muscle resulting in a decreased drip loss.