Effect of a grass-based and a concentrate feeding system on meat quality characteristics and fatty acid composition of longissimus muscle in different cattle breeds

Twenty Gascon young bulls that had been reared either in intensive conditions (INT) (n = 10) with early weaning at 3 to 4 months, or in a traditional extensive (EXT) system (n = 10) with weaning at 7 months, were subjected to the same conditions during the 145-day finishing period. Production system before the finishing period did not affect conformation, dressing percentage or morphology of the carcass; nevertheless, tissue composition differed somewhat between the two groups. Display had a stronger effect on meat colour than did production system. Percentage of myoglobin was highest in INT (P ⩽ 0.001), although meat texture and sensory quality did not differ between rearing conditions. EXT animals had darker, more yellow fat, a higher percentage of n-3 fatty acids (P ⩽ 0.001), a lower percentage of saturated fatty acids (P ⩽ 0.05) and a lower n-6/n-3 index (P ⩽ 0.001) than did the INT-reared animals. Production system before the fattening period might modify some of the characteristics of commercial beef, especially those associated with fat.Keywords: Gascon breed, beef cattle, colour, panel test, fatty acids ImplicationsThe effect of background before the entrance in a feedlot on meat quality in beef has been hardly studied for the literature available on this topic is very scarce, especially when the productive life of the animals is considered as a whole and animals are fed a common finishing diet. Our results show new information and complement the existent helping to understand the possible influence of the previous fattening production system, as grazing at an early stage provokes certain distinctive characteristics that are kept even after several months of concentrate feeding.

Section: Fat Qualitysupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Fat Qualitymentioning

confidence: 96%

Effect of production system before the finishing period on carcass, meat and fat qualities of beef

Guerrero

Albertı́

Ripoll

et al. 2013

“…Varela et al (2004) also failed to find differences in meat colour between steers finished (3 months) exclusively on pasture or with corn silage and concentrate, slaughtered at the same age and live weight. On the contrary, Nuernberg et al (2005) reported lower L* values (a* and b* values were not measured) in bulls finished on grass-based v. concentratebased diets. These authors hypothesised that these differences could be associated with higher physical activity of grass-fed animals compared with indoor kept concentratefed bulls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…However, diet and, especially, forage type and concentrate level, are among the most important factors Geay et al, -E-mail: micol@clermont.inra.fr 2002; Nuernberg et al, 2005). The effects of forage type and concentrate level used in different periods of production have previously been studied, but little information is available for young bulls (slaughtered between 10 and 12 months of age) suckled until slaughter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Young Salers suckled bull production: effect of diet on performance, carcass and muscle characteristics and meat quality

Serrano¹,

Pradel²,

Jailler³

et al. 2007

The aim of this work was to improve the knowledge on young suckled Salers bull production and to study the effect of forage type and concentrate level on performance, carcass and muscle characteristics as well as on meat quality. Twenty-four Salers male calves of 150 days of age were assigned to six groups: C0 (fed exclusively with hay and dam's milk and slaughtered at approximately 6 months of age), and HH (hay -high concentrate), HL (hay -low concentrate), GH (cut grass -high concentrate), GL (cut grass -low concentrate) and CP (control pasture: pasture -high concentrate) groups differing in feeds received until slaughter and slaughtered unweaned at approximately 10 months of age. Carcass weights averaged 210 kg at 10 months of age at slaughter. Average daily weight gain (ADWG) in HH and GH groups tended to be higher (P 5 0.09) than in HL and GL groups (1354 v. 1248 g/day). ADWG in CP group (1542 g/day) was higher (P , 0.05) than in the other groups. Carcass weight in CP group (230 kg) tended to be higher (P , 0.1) than in HL (198 kg) and GL (200 kg) groups. Carcass muscle weight was higher (P , 0.05) in GH (155 kg) and CP groups (165 kg) than in HL (141 kg) and GL (142 kg) groups. Carcass and offal fatty tissue weights and carcass fatness did not differ between groups. Neither forage type nor concentrate level had significant effect on the area of muscle fibres or on muscle metabolic enzyme activities (namely, lactate dehydrogenase -LDH, phosphofructokinase -PFK, isocitrate dehydrogenase -ICDH, citrate synthase -CS and cytochrome-c oxidase -COX). semitendinosus muscle of CP group presented higher CS enzyme activities (8.10 mmol/min per g) than HH (5.30 mmol/min per g) and GL (4.52 mmol/min per g) groups. Neither total nor insoluble collagen content significantly differed between groups. Lipid content in rectus abdominis muscle was relatively low (average 67.5 mg/g dry matter) and was not affected by diet (P . 0.05). The ratio between n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid content was lower (P 5 0.01) in the low-concentrate-fed than in the high-concentrate-fed group (3.95 v. 5.37, respectively). Sensory analysis noted that longissimus thoracis muscle from CP animals was more tender and juicy than that from HH and GH animals (P , 0.05).

“…There is particular interest in the animal products derived from pasture-fed animals because they are considered nutritionally superior as a result of elevated levels of n-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid arising from the feeding regime (Enser et al, 1998;Nuernberg et al, 2005;Alfaia et al, 2009), as well as being more animal welfare-friendly (Prache et al, 2005). Efforts have recently been made to develop analytical tools to quantify specific compounds in animal tissues that can act as markers of animal diet, including carotenoids (Simonne et al, 1996;Serrano et al, 2006), terpenes and phenolic compounds (Young et al, 1997) and tocopherols (Rö hrle et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authentication of beef production systems using a metabolomic-based approach

Osório

Moloney

Brennan

et al. 2012

There is a need for new, non-invasive, rapid and reliable analytical methodologies that can easily be implemented and used for authentication of cattle production systems and the meat derived from them. Easily quantifiable markers could strengthen the current tracing methods for beef authentication. This study investigated the use of a nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomic approach as a tool to authenticate beef on the basis of the pre-slaughter production system. Urine and muscle samples were collected from animals fed either pasture outdoor, a barley-based concentrate indoor, silage followed by pasture outdoor or silage followed by pasture outdoor with concentrate over 1 year. A metabolomic analysis was performed on urine (n 5 68) and muscle (n 5 98) samples collected from animals on the different diets. The results showed that separation according to production system was possible indicating the potential use of this approach in beef authentication. Identification of the major discriminating peaks in urine led to the identification of potential markers of production system including creatinine, glucose, hippurate, pyruvate, phenylalanine, phenylacetylglycine and three unassigned resonances.