Effects of Dietary Chromium Methionine on Growth Performance, Carcass Composition, Meat Colour and Expression of the Colour-related Gene Myoglobin of Growing-finishing Pigs

Abstract

To investigate the effect of dietary chromium (Cr) as Cr methionine (CrMet) on growth performance, carcass traits, pork quality, meat colour and expression of meat colour-related genes in growing-finishing pigs, 189 crossbred Duroc×(Landrace×Yorkshire) growing-finishing pigs (male, castrated, average initial BW 74.58±1.52 kg) were selected and randomly allocated into four groups. Dietary treatments per kg of feed were as follows: 0 (CT), 0.3 mg/kg (T1), 0.6 mg/kg (T2) and 0.9 mg/kg (T3) Cr (in the form of CrMet; as-fed basis), and each treatment was replicated five times with 8 to 10 pigs per replicate pen. During the 28 d of the experiment, both the ADG and the ADFI increased linearly (p<0.05) as the level of dietary Cr increased. The F/G ratio decreased linearly (p<0.05). As dietary Cr increased, loin muscle areas (linear, p = 0.013) and average backfat thickness (linear, p = 0.072) decreased. Shear force (linear, p = 0.070) and Commission Internationale de I’Éclairage (CIE) redness (quadratic, p = 0.028) were increased. In addition, CIE Lightness (quadratic, p = 0.053) were decreased as dietary Cr increased. As dietary Cr increased, total myglobin (Mb) content (quadratic, p = 0.015) and the mb mRNA levels (quadratic, p = 0.046) in longissimus muscles of pigs were up-regulated. In conclusion, supplementation of dietary Cr improved growth and meat colour, but increased shear force and decreased IMF reduced palatability of longissimus muscles. Moreover, the increasing total Mb content and mb mRNA levels indicated that CrMet dietary supplementation may improve meat colour via up-regulating expression of the mb gene.

RNA‐seq‐based quanitative transcriptome analysis of meat color and taste from chickens administered by eucalyptus leaf polyphenols extract

“…Additionally, it could also be related to the upregulated a * value and MB content in muscle and the functional enhancement of meat color. Similar research (Li et al., 2013) reported that increased a * values and MB gene expression correlated with MB content in pork. Additionally, hemoglobin is an important factor in the biochemical basis of red color in meats (Behrends, Mikel, Armstrong, & Newman, 2003; Petracci, Betti, Bianchi, & Cavani, 2004).…”

Effects of Graded Levels of Chromium Methionine on Performance, Carcass Traits, Meat Quality, Fatty Acid Profiles of Fat, Tissue Chromium Concentrations, and Antioxidant Status in Growing-Finishing Pigs

“…Jackson et al [15] reported that neither meat color (L*, a*, and b* values) nor shear force of the fresh chop was affected by CrProp supplementation. Nevertheless, Li et al [17] found that CrMet addition increased L* values due to increased total myglobin contents and its mRNA levels, and increased shear force in longissimus muscles of pigs, but had no effect on water holding capacity. The present study found that additional CrMet decreased drip loss after 24 h, conversely, increased pH 24 and shear force, but had no effect on pH 1 and minolta scores L*, a*, and b* values on LM.…”

“…A meta-analysis of the effects of dietary chromium supplementation in growing-finishing pigs was reported by Sales et al [30], in 2011 who summarized that chromium addition improved the ratio of gain to feed, decreased 10th fat thickness, and increased lean percentage and LMA. Besides, a dose-response study by Li et al [17] indicated an improvement on growth performance and carcass traits in terms of LMA and average backfat thickness by CrMet in pigs as body weight grow from 75 to 100 kg. While the present results showed that graded levels of dietary chromium as CrMet have no significant effect on growth performance in either the individual period or total experimental period in pigs as body weights grow from 30 to 100 kg, as well as carcass traits, nevertheless, pigs fed 200 μg/kg chromium as CrMet had a numerically greater value in LMA than the control (P<0.10).…”

“…Chromium methionine (CrMet), as a chelate complex of amino acid, has been proved to be a bioavailable Cr source due to increased glucose clearance rate in animals [12][13][14]. Some studies demonstrated that CrMet had beneficial effects on carcass traits [15,16], meat quality [17], and immunity [18] in pigs.…”

Effects of chromium supplementation on growth, nutrient digestibility and meat quality of growing pigs

“…Most published research refers to the longissimus muscle area and total carcass lean (Shelton et al, 2003), drip loss in chops (Wang & Xu, 2004), loin pH, drip and purge loss (Matthews et al, 2005), backfat and the iodine value of belly (Jackson et al, 2009), carcass lean ratio and carcass fat ratio (Wang et al, 2014), and meat colour (Li et al, 2013). The concentrations of protein and fat are critical attributes of carcass quality (Monziols et al, 2006).…”