The study investigated the effects of prolonged oral administration of dexamethasone at a low daily dosage of 0.75 mg/head per day (Dexa) on beef cattle productive traits, behaviour and meat quality. In all, 14 finishing Marchigiana bulls were used in a trial that begun 56 days prior to slaughter, of which six bulls received treatment from day 5 to day 53, whereas the remaining animals were used for Control. The animals treated showed an increased average daily gain (1515 v. 1177 g/head per day; P , 0.05; s.e.d. 5 48.54) and improved warm carcass dressing percentage (60.8% v. 59.7%; P , 0.05; s.e.d. 5 0.32). Behavioural observation did not permit a clear distinction between treated and Control animals since feeding and social behaviour were similar in both groups. The bulls treated spent less time lying (16.5% v. 34.6%; P , 0.05; s.e.d. 5 4.38) and grooming (6.7% v. 11.9%; P , 0.05; s.e.d. 5 1.23), and this may indicate poorer welfare. No evidence of treatment was observed in other carcass traits, and redness was the only meat quality parameter slightly affected by corticosteroid administration.
The histological status of the thymus, blood cortisol concentration and circulating neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio were evaluated in 349 slaughtered beef cattle, to assess the potential of these parameters as indirect biomarkers of the illegal use of corticosteroids in meat production. The livers of 20 of the animals were analysed chemically for residues of corticosteroids. The morphology of the thymus was examined for adipose tissue infiltration, cortical atrophy and 'starry sky' appearance, and on the basis of these characteristics, the animals were considered to be negative, suspected or positive for illegal corticosteroid treatment. The animals considered to be negative had a mean cortisol concentration that was significantly higher (29 ng/ml) than that of the animals suspected for corticosteroid treatment (22 ng/ml). Using the chemical analysis as the gold standard for identifying illegally treated animals, the histological examination of the thymus had a sensitivity of 100 per cent and a specificity of 85 per cent. The samples that were positive by chemical analysis had cortisol concentrations of less than 2.0 ng/ml, whereas the mean cortisol concentration of the negative samples was 10.3 ng/ml.
The fraudulent treatment of cattle with growth promoting agents (GPAs) is a matter of great concern for the European Union (EU) authorities and consumers. It has been estimated that 10% of animals are being illegally treated in the EU. In contrast, only a much lower percentage of animals (<0.5%) are actually found as being noncompliant by conventional analytical methods. Thus, it has been proposed that methods should be developed that can detect the use of the substances via the biological effects of these substances on target organs, such as the alteration of protein expression profiles. Here we present a study aimed at evaluating if a correlation exists between the treatment with GPAs and alterations in the two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) protein pattern obtained from the biceps brachii skeletal muscle from mixed-bred cattle. After image analysis and statistical evaluation, protein spots that differentiate between treated and control groups were selected for analysis by mass spectrometry. A set of proteins could be defined that accurately detect the use of glucocorticoids and β(2)-agonists as growth promoters through the changes caused in muscle differentiation. As a further validation, we repeated the analysis using an independent set of samples from a strain of pure-bred cattle and verified these proteins by Western blot analysis.
BackgroundCorticosteroids are illegally used in several countries as growth promoters in veal calves and beef cattle, either alone or in association with sex steroids and β-agonists, especially at low dosages and primarily through oral administration, in order to enhance carcasses and meat quality traits. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the reliability of the histological evaluation of the thymus, as well as the serum cortisol determination, in identifying beef cattle, treated with two different dexamethasone-based growth-promoting protocols and the application of different withdrawal times before slaughter.ResultsOur findings demonstrate that low dosages of dexamethasone (DXM), administered alone or in association with clenbuterol as growth promoter in beef cattle, induce morphologic changes in the thymus, resulting in increase fat infiltration with concurrent cortical atrophy and reduction of the cortex/medulla ratio (C/M). In fact, the C/M value was significantly lower in treated animals than in control ones, with both the protocols applied. The cut off value of 0.93 for the cortex/medulla ratio resulted to be highly effective to distinguish control and treated animals. The animals treated with DXM showed inhibition of cortisol secretion during the treatment period, as well as at the slaughterhouse, 3 days after treatment suspension. The animals treated with lower doses of DXM in association with clenbuterol, showed inhibition of cortisol secretion during the treatment period, but serum cortisol concentration was restored to physiological levels at slaughterhouse, 8 days after treatment suspension.ConclusionsThe histological evaluation of thymus morphology, and particularly of the C/M may represent a valuable and reproducible method applicable to large-scale screening programs, due to the easy sampling procedures at slaughterhouse, as well as time and cost-saving of the analysis. Serum cortisol determination could be considered as an useful in vivo biomarker of dexamethasone illegal treatment in beef cattle during the fattening period, whilst it does not appear to be a good biomarker at the slaughterhouse, since the protocol of DXM administration, as well as the withdrawal period could affect the reliability of the method.
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