EFFECT OF SHORT-TERM SUPPLEMENTATION WITH VITAMIN D3 ON BEEF TENDERNESS

Sami,, A. S.; Abou-Bakr, S.; Abdellatif, H. A.

doi:10.21608/jappmu.2005.237953

EFFECT OF SHORT-TERM SUPPLEMENTATION WITH VITAMIN D3 ON BEEF TENDERNESS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, 12613, Cairo University, Egypt

² Department of Nutrition & Clinical Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, 12211, Cairo University, Egypt.

10.21608/jappmu.2005.237953

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of dietary supplementation of vitamin D₃ to Baladi cattle bulls before slaughter on meat tenderness.Twelve Baladi bulls were randomly allotted into 3 equal groups each consisted of 4 animals. Group one served as a control, group 2 received a dietary supplementation of vitamin D₃ at a rate of 5 × 10⁶ IU/day, while bulls of group 3 were supplemented with 7.5 × 10⁶ IU/day. Dietary supplementation of vitamin D₃ was instituted for the last 10 days before slaughter. All bulls were slaughtered with an average final live weight of 413+7.2 kg. Steaks from the Longissimus dorsi muscle of the 9, 10 and 11^th ribs were separated after chilling and aged at 1°C for 14 days to measure calcium content and eating quality attributes. Plasma calcium level was significantly higher (P<0.05) in group 3 than the control group. Meat calcium concentration in group 2 was significantly (P<0.05) higher than both of the control group and group 3. The lowest Warner-Bratzler shear force value of Longissimus dorsi muscle was recorded for group 3 compared with the control and group 2, without significant differences among the three groups. However, group 2 had better scores for tenderness and juiciness and flavor, these scores were not significantly different from the control and group 3 (P>0.05). Results indicate that oral supplementation with vitamin D₃ for 10 days before slaughter increased plasma and muscle calcium levels but did not significantly improve cooked meat tenderness.

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