Effects of betaine on growth, carcass characteristics, pork quality, and plasma metabolites of finishing pigs.

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of dietary betaine (0, 0.125, 0.250, or 0.500%) on growth, carcass traits, pork quality, plasma metabolites, and tissue betaine concentrations of cross-bred finishing pigs. Four replications of three pigs (two barrows and one gilt) each were used for each treatment. The basal diet contained 0.85 (69 to 88 kg BW) or 0.65% Lys (88 to 115 kg BW). Overall ADG and gain:feed were not affected (P > 0.10) by betaine, but overall ADFI was decreased (quadratic, P < 0.05; 0 vs betaine, P < 0.01) by betaine; pigs fed 0.250% betaine had the lowest ADFI. Loin muscle area, average back-fat, dressing percentage, percentage lean, total fat, lean:fat, and leaf fat weight were not affected (P > 0.10) by betaine. Tenth-rib backfat thickness was decreased (quadratic, P < 0.05; 0 vs betaine, P < 0.05); pigs fed 0.250% betaine had the lowest 10th-rib backfat thickness. Carcass length was increased (linear, P < 0.05; 0 vs betaine, P < 0.10) as the level of betaine was increased. Fat-free lean, lean gain per day, ham weight, ham fat-free lean, and ham percentage lean were increased (quadratic, P < 0.10), but percentage fat, total ham fat, percentage ham fat, and butt-fat thickness were decreased (quadratic, P < 0.10); these traits were respectively highest or lowest in pigs fed 0.250% betaine. Thaw loss and 24-h pH were increased (quadratic, P < 0.10; 0 vs betaine, P < 0.05) and cook loss was decreased (linear, P < 0.05) in pigs fed betaine. The CIE L* value for the biceps femoris was decreased (quadratic, P < 0.10; 0 vs betaine, P < 0.10); pigs fed 0.250% betaine had the lowest CIE L* value. Subjective color, firmness-wetness, marbling, percentage moisture and bound water of the loin muscle, and shear force were not affected (P > 0.10) by betaine. Betaine was not detectable (< 0.07 mg/g) in the loin muscle of pigs fed 0% betaine, but betaine was detectable and relatively constant in pigs fed 0.125, 0.250, or 0.500% betaine (0.22, 0.17, and 0.21 mg/g, respectively). Plasma urea N, total protein, albumin, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol concentrations were not affected (P > 0.10). Plasma total cholesterol (linear, P < 0.10) and NEFA (quadratic, P < 0.10) were increased in pigs fed betaine. Betaine improved carcass traits when provided at 0.250% of the diet and improved some aspects of pork quality.

Impact of dietary betaine and conjugated linoleic acid on insulin sensitivity, protein and fat metabolism of obese pigs

“…Although increased total cholesterol (Matthews et al, 2001;Martins et al, 2010) and decreased HDL/total cholesterol (Martins et al, 2010) have been reported in pigs fed betaine, other authors reported no betaine effect on cholesterol, plasma NEFA or TG (Matthews et al, 1998;Øverland et al, 1999). We found decreased HDL/total cholesterol in betaine pigs, but no significant effects in total cholesterol or fractions.…”

“…Most studies with betaine in pigs focus on the effect of betaine on growth performance, carcass characteristics and pork quality. Several reports have indicated that betaine could decrease carcass fat deposition and increase carcass lean in pigs (Matthews et al, 2001;Ferná ndez-Fígares et al, 2002), -E-mail: ifigares@eez.csic.es especially under restricted energy intake (Suster et al, 2004) conditions. In contrast, CLA is a collective name that refers to a mixture of positional and geometric conjugated isomers of linoleic acid.…”

Betaine improves growth, but does not induce whole body or hepatic palmitate oxidation in swine (Sus scrofa domestica)

“…When male andf emale pigs have been compared directly, conflicting results have been previously obtained with respect to ability of betaine to alter growth and lipid metabolism (Lawrence et al, 2002). The previously noted decrease in voluntary feed intake has been reported in betaine growth trials with females alone or with groups of mixed sexes (Matthews et al, 1998(Matthews et al, , 2001a. The Finnish study used mixed genders (females and castrated males), but they did not report their data by gender (Siljander-Rasi et al, 2003).…”

“…The pigs were restrictively fed (80% ad libitum) and housed in a very confined space (metabolism crates). In trials in which pigs are given ad libitum access to feed, a tendency towards a reduction in voluntary feed intake has been reported, accompanied by no change in overall growth (Matthews et al, 1998(Matthews et al, , 2001a). In the current experiment, where feed intake was strictly controlled and limited to 80% of expected ad libitum intake, the improvement in feed:gain ratio resulted in the overall observed increase in growth rate.…”

“…Initial studies indicated that dietary betaine markedly decreased backfat thickness without influencing other growth parameters (Cadogan et al, 1993). More recent studies in finishing pigs, using various nutritional regimens and experimental conditions have also demonstrated decreases in some indicators of body fat (Lawrence et al, 2002) with a potential reduction in feed intake (Matthews et al, 2001a) under some conditions. In contrast, other studies in finishing pigs have reported minimal or no effects of betaine on growth, feed intake or body fat (Matthews et al, 1998;Overland et al, 1999).…”