Meat quality traits and feeding distillers grains to cattle: a review

MERAYO, M.; PIGHIN, D.; GRIGIONI, G.

Animal Production Science

CSIRO

Año: 2020

1836-0939

Abstract. Livestock management and meat production involve a series of steps that affect meat quality. Animal genetics,nutrition and diets, slaughter procedures and meat-preservation conditions are some of the parameters that should becontrolled to maintain meat quality. In regard to animal nutrition and diets, novel ingredients are increasingly used, distillersgrains (DG) being an example. DG are obtained as a co-product from bioethanol production and comprise the fat, protein,fibre and micronutrient portion of the grains. Many papers have studied the inclusion ofDGin finishing diets and their effecton growth performance and meat characteristics, but a review on the effects on meat quality is needed. Feeding with DGinfluences beef colour; nevertheless, a relationship between the level of inclusion and colour development has not beenestablished yet. In addition, feeding DG-inclusion diets sometimes increases meat discoloration during retail display. Also,the composition of fatty acids is modified since total polyunsaturated fatty acid content in meat increases with the inclusionof DG in finishing diets. This increment in polyunsaturated fatty acid content is likely to contribute to lipid oxidationprocesses and might be related to meat discoloration due to myoglobin oxidation. However, meat tenderness has not beenmodified in most of the cases. This review focused on recent studies onDGinclusion, animal performance and meat quality.Key points that need further research are also identified and discussed.