The use of vitamin D3 to improve beef tenderness.

Abstract

An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that short-term oral administration of dietary vitamin D3 to beef cattle before slaughter would increase beef tenderness through greater calcium-activated calpain activity in postmortem aged skeletal muscle. Thirty continental crossbred steers were allotted randomly to three treatment groups housed in one pen. One group served as a control; two other groups were administered boluses with either 5 x 10(6) or 7.5 x 10(6) IU of vitamin D3 daily for 9 d. Cattle were slaughtered 1 d later. The longissimus lumborum was excised from each carcass 72 h postmortem and steaks removed at 3, 7, 14, and 21 d postmortem. The semimembranosus muscle (top round) was excised from each carcass 72 h postmortem and steaks removed at 7, 14, and 21 d postmortem. Blood plasma calcium concentration of cattle treated with 5 or 7.5 x 10(6) IU of vitamin D3 was higher (P < .05) than that of controls. Strip loin and top loin steaks from cattle fed supplemental doses of vitamin D3 had lower (P < .05) Warner-Bratzler (W-B) shear values at 14 d postmortem but were not significantly different from controls at 3, 7, or 21 d (strip loins) or 7 or 21 d (top rounds). No significant difference in strip loin steak tenderness was observed by sensory panel at 14 d postmortem (P < .17) between steaks from control and vitamin D3-treated steers. At 14 d postmortem, strip loin and top round steaks from cattle fed 5 x 10(6) IU of vitamin D3, but not from those given 7.5 x 10(6) IU, showed more proteolysis (P < .05) than did steaks from control cattle, based on Western blotting analysis. Therefore, the use of supplemental dietary vitamin D3 given daily for 9 d before slaughter did improve tenderness (lower W-B shear values) of 14-d postmortem aged beef. Increased proteolysis seems to be the mechanism of tenderization.

Effect of dietary Ca manipulation, anionic salts and supplemental vitamin D3 on calcium homeostasis of finishing steers

“…Supplementation with mega doses of vitamin D 3 (5 or 7 MIU head -1 d -1 ) for 5 to 10 d prior to slaughter has been shown to increase plasma calcium levels (Aranda-Osorio et al 2004) and improve beef tenderness (Swanek et al 1997(Swanek et al , 1999Montgomery et al 2000Montgomery et al , 2002. However, supplementation at such high levels to finishing steers shortly before slaughter can result in marked increases in vitamin D 3 levels in muscle and adipose tissue and in edible organs such as liver (Montgomery et al 2000(Montgomery et al , 2002.…”

“…However, supplementation at such high levels to finishing steers shortly before slaughter can result in marked increases in vitamin D 3 levels in muscle and adipose tissue and in edible organs such as liver (Montgomery et al 2000(Montgomery et al , 2002. The objective of this study was to determine if plasma Ca levels of steers fed a finishing diet could be manipulated through dietary means (i.e., feeding a low-Ca diet followed by supplementation with a high-Ca diet and anionic salts) in combination with reduced levels of vitamin D 3 (i.e., 0.6, 1.2 or 2.4 MIU head -1 d -1 ).…”

“…High intracellular Ca levels are known to enhance the activity of Ca-dependant proteolytic enzymes responsible for post-rigor myofibril degradation resulting in improved beef tenderness (Owens et al 1998). Feeding mega levels of vitamin D 3 (5 to 7.5 MIU head -1 d -1 ) for short periods (5 to 10 d) prior to slaughter can, however, result in excessively high residual levels of this vitamin in liver and other edible tissues (Montgomery et al 2000), as well as negatively influencing animal performance (Karges et al 1999a, b;Berry et al 2000).…”

“…One such effort has been the feeding of mega levels of vitamin D 3 (5 to 7 MIU head -1 d -1 ) for 7 to 10 d prior to slaughter (Swanek et al 1997(Swanek et al , 1999Montgomery et al 2000;Aranda-Osorio et al 2004). The proposed mechanism involves increased intestinal Ca absorption as a result of vitamin D 3 feeding, which in turn leads to higher intracellular Ca concentrations post-slaughter.…”

Influence of vitamins A, D3 and E status on post-mortem meat quality in steers under winter housing or pasture finishing systems

“…Ante-mortem dietary supplementation with D 3 has been shown to increase the amount of calcium sequestered by the muscle tissue and to improve muscle tenderness when supplemented continuously before slaughter in beef steers (Swanek et al, 1999;Montgomery et al, 2000). However, single doses fed days before slaughter (Lawrence et al, 2006) or on single occasions further from slaughter (Wertz et al, 2004), have not been effective in increasing post-slaughter tenderisation.…”