Bilberry pomace in growing rabbit diets: effects on quality traits of hind leg meat

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of dietary bilberry pomace (BP) on colour, cooking losses, proximate composition and fatty acid (FA) profile of hind leg meat in growing rabbits. One hundred and forty-four Grimaud weaned rabbits (35 days old) were randomly divided into four groups of 36 animals each and fed ad libitum with a basal diet (C diet) tested against three assay diets developed by substituting 50, 100 and 150 g/kg of the C diet with BP (BP5, BP10 and BP15 diets, respectively). At 83 days of age, the rabbits were slaughtered without fasting. Inclusion of BP in the diet did not significantly affect colour, cooking losses, ash and protein contents, but determined a significant increase of ether extract in the muscle. Increasing dietary inclusion of BP also determined a proportional increase of total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and total n-3 FA, as well as a proportional decrease of total saturated fatty acids (SFA), total branched chain fatty acids (BCFA) and total monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in the muscle. Dietary BP significantly improved the PUFA/SFA ratio, the R n-6/R n-3 FA ratio and the atherogenicity, thrombogenicity and hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic FA indexes of rabbit meat but it decreased D5-desaturase plus D6-desaturase index. The obtained results suggest that BP inclusion in growing rabbit diets can improve the fatty acid profile of hind leg meat, with consequent health benefits to consumers. ARTICLE HISTORY

Carcass and meat quality of rabbits fed Tithonia tubaeformis weed

“…Similar results were found by Koné et al (2019), using an oil extract from a mix of different plants. Other studies did not find differences in color when feeding diets containing barley, wheat, or corn dried distillers grains (Alagón et al, 2015) or billberry pomace (Dabbou et al, 2017).…”

“…Several healthy plants have been used for feeding fattening rabbits, as they are a source of phytochemicals used as antioxidants or antimicrobials (Zeng et al, 2015;Dalle Zotte et al, 2016). Bilberry pomace was used as a feeding strategy to improve fatty acid content in rabbit meat (Dabbou et al, 2017). Cardinali et al (2015) used oregano, rosemary, and vitamin E as feed supplements for enhancing growth performance and carcass traits in fattening rabbits.…”

Effect of Thymol Addition and Withdrawal on Some Blood Parameters, Antioxidative Defence System and Fatty Acid Profile in Rabbit Muscle

“…These biological reactions are initiated by the production of ROS, which remove protons from FA [ 44 ]. Dabbou et al [ 45 ] demonstrated that bilberry pomace, which is characterised by high antioxidant activity due to high contents of phenols, effectively prevented the oxidation of unsaturated lipids in the muscles of rabbits. An increase in unsaturated FA and, mainly, linolenic acid were observed in our study after the addition of thymol, which probably blocked the oxidation of the lipids with its strong antioxidative properties.…”

Bilberry pomace in rabbit nutrition: effects on growth performance, apparent digestibility, caecal traits, bacterial community and antioxidant status

“…The high cost and limitation of feedstuff resources are critical issues for the livestock section, especially in the rabbit production field. However, several agricultural byproducts could be used as alternative raw materials in rabbit nutrition as they have been found to be highly nutritious and low cost feeding sources (Dabbou et al, 2014;Dabbou et al, 2017a).…”