Effects of Herbal Tea Residue on Growth Performance, Meat Quality, Muscle Metabolome, and Rumen Microbiota Characteristics in Finishing Steers

Abstract

Herbal tea residue (HTR) contains various medicinal and nutritional components and is a potential high-quality unconventional source of roughage. In this study, a total of 30 healthy Simmental crossbred finishing steers were equally divided into two groups: CN (fed with a basic diet) and RE (HTR partly replaced Pennisetum purpureum). HTR did not alter the growth performance of steers but increased the net meat rate, tenderness, and water-holding capacity and increased the moisture content and oleic acid and linoleic acid concentrations in longissimus dorsi. It altered muscle metabolic pathways and improved rumen fermentation by increasing the propionic acid concentration and propionic acid-to-acetic acid ratio. We studied the steers’ rumen microbial community composition and determined their correlation with the tested parameters. Certain rumen microorganisms were closely associated with muscle glucolipid metabolites and rumen NH3-N and volatile fatty acid levels. Our findings suggest that, as a functional roughage source, HTR improved to a certain extent the meat quality of steers by altering the rumen microbial composition and affecting the rumen fatty acid composition and muscle glucolipid metabolism.

Effects of intramuscular fat on meat quality and its regulation mechanism in Tan sheep

“…Shear force was estimated using a C-LM3 muscle tenderness meter (Bulader Technology Development Co., Ltd., Beijing, China). Drip loss was determined as the weight loss after suspending meat samples (three replicates) in an expanded clear plastic bottle at 4°C for 24 h ( 27 ). To measure the WHC value, meat samples (three replicates) were placed between two layers of gauze with 18 layers of qualitative filter paper on the upper and lower layers.…”

Effects of different forage proportions in fermented total mixed ration on muscle fatty acid profile and rumen microbiota in lambs

“…In this study, the AH treatment resulted in a higher abundance of Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group and higher cholesterol content, which is mainly due to the Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group belonging to the butyrate-producing bacteria, which could increase AMPK activity and further regulate lipid deposition traits by regulating the production of VFAs (Zhang Y. K. et al, 2021 ; Cheng et al, 2022 ). Furthermore, the increase in Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group abundance may affect C18:1n9c content ( Figure 6 ), which can regulate cholesterol (Li et al, 2022 ). Ruminal microorganisms establish the key link between dietary nutrition and the fatty acids in ruminant products (Abuelfatah et al, 2016 ).…”

— Invited Review — Translational gut microbiome research for strategies to improve beef cattle production sustainability and meat quality

“…In another study by Krause et al [ 27 ], it is shown that relative abundances of bacterial family S24–7 family and Allerminsia , Blautia , Klebsiella , Peptostreptococcus , Slenimonas genera in rumen were positively correlated with marbling score in Angus steers. The crude fat content of muscles tended to be associated with the increased ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteriodetes in Simmental crossbred finishing steers [ 28 ]. In lambs, significantly higher relative abundance of Fibrobacter and Succinivibrio were associated with higher intramuscular fat in the group fed with a lower Alfalfa content ratio, and had a high content of palmitic, stearic, elaidic, and alpha-linolenic in longissimus lumborum muscle [ 29 ].…”