Copper and selenium supplementation in the diet of Brangus steers on the nutritional characteristics of meat

Abstract

-Twenty-eight Brangus cattle were used to determine the effect of copper and selenium supplementation on the carcass characteristics, fatty acid composition of the longissimus dorsi muscle and on the copper and selenium concentrations in the liver. The treatments were: no supplementation of copper or selenium; 2 mg Se/kg DM as sodium selenite; 40 mg Cu/kg DM as copper sulfate; and 2 mg Se/kg DM as sodium selenite and 40 mg Cu/kg DM as copper sulfate. The fat thickness, rib eye area and fatty acid composition of the longissimus dorsi muscle were not affected by treatments. There was no effect on carcass yield and cooling loss with the supplementation of copper, selenium or selenium × copper in the levels studied. For the ether extract concentration in the longissimus dorsi muscle, no differences were found according to the treatments with selenium, copper or selenium × copper. The treatments with selenium and selenium × copper showed higher selenium concentrations in the liver than the control and copper treatments. For the copper concentration in the liver, the copper and selenium × copper treatments showed higher values than the control and selenium treatments. Despite the little effect on the meat composition, the results of this experiment demonstrate no interaction between selenium and copper in the levels studied.

Meat composition and quality of young growing Belgian Blue bulls offered a fattening diet with selenium enriched cereals

“…That water is mainly held by capillary forces resulting from the arrangement of the thick and thin filaments within the myofibril (Huff-Lonergan and Lonergan 2005). The present results are in agreement with those reported by Netto et al (2013), who did not demonstrate significant effects of Se supplementation on meat cooking loss. The cooking losses in this experiment were close to the values reported by Cozzi et al (2011) at 34.6% in Charolais cattle supplemented with Se.…”

“…Cozzi et al (2011) previously reported no effects of Se supplementation for the slaughter performance of Charolais bulls managed through different feeding strategies. Netto et al (2013) observed no significant differences in carcass yield of steers from the Brangus breed receiving a diet supplemented with Se at 2 mg kg…”

“…The significance of the enrichment is different depending on the Se type, source and administered dose. Mineral Se supplementation did not give a significant difference in the concentration of Se in the muscles (Lawler et al 2004;Juniper et al 2008;Netto et al 2013). A proportion of the absorbed organic Se is directly incorporated into the body proteins as selenomethionine (Se-met) rather than methionine (met), whereas inorganic Se is mostly used for the synthesis of selenoproteiens (Behne et al 1991).…”

Selenium in Cattle: A Review

“…Selenium enrichment of the diet of young fattening bulls and steers had no significant effect on weight at slaughter and carcass yield. These effects were observed in the studies of Lawler et al [78] with organic selenium (selenized yeast), Netto et al [79] with the mineral selenium and Mehdi et al [68] with the cereals produced from the fertilizer selenium enriched soil.…”

“…Part of the absorbed organic selenium is incorporated directly into the muscle proteins, while the inorganic selenium is mainly used for the synthesis of selenoproteins [102,103]. Inorganic selenium supplementation provides no significant difference in the selenium concentration in the muscles [78,79,85]. During a selenite supplementation, most of the selenium is incorporated in selenoproteins.…”