The effects of guanidinoacteic acid (GAA) supplementation on productive performance, pectoral myopathies, and meat quality of broilers were studied. Treatments consisted of corn/soybean-based diets with a GAA supplement (0%, 0.06%, and 0.12%). A total of 546 one-day-old Ross-308 males were randomly allocated to 42 floor pens with 14 replicates (13 birds/pens) for each treatment. The results showed that GAA at doses of 0.06% and 0.12% improved feed conversion, increased the percentage of normal breast, and decreased the severity of wooden breast. Breast muscle myopathy severity was positively correlated with heavy birds and negatively correlated with breast muscle creatine and glycogen. Breast muscle creatine and glycogen correlated positively with normal, less severe pectoral myopathies and meat quality. In conclusion, GAA supplementation improved broiler performance without exacerbating pectoral myopathy or affecting meat quality.
Carcass composition, meat quality, calpain activity, fatty acid composition, and ribonucleotide content were examined and compared between male Southern Thai native goats (NG, n = 10) and three-way crossbred goats (CG, 50% Boer × 25% Saanen × 25% Southern Thai native, n = 10). All animals were fed 1.5% body weight of concentrate (16% protein and 70% total digestible nutrients) and fresh Napier grass for 4 months. At the end of raising period, the final weight between the two genotypes was not significantly different. The percentage of carcass, bone, and fat of CG were higher than those of NG. NG presented lower shear force values, insoluble and total collagen content but higher collagen solubility and calpain-1 activity at 24 h postmortem. Additionally, NG meat was high in monounsaturated fatty acids but low in saturated fatty acids. However, the amount of ribonucleotide was no significant difference between two genotypes.
This study investigated the effects of dietary energy density in rice straw and cassava pulp fermented total mixed ration on pH, cooking loss, Warner–Bratzler shear force (WBSF), and collagen content of 2- or 14-d-aged native Thai cattle (NTC) Longissimus thoracic (LT) muscles and fatty acids and ribonucleotides of 2-d-aged LT. Eighteen yearling NTC (Bos indicus) were randomly divided into three dietary treatments (T1 = 8.9, T2 = 9.7, and T3 = 10.5 MJ ME/kg), with six bulls per treatment. The results showed that T1 had the highest WBSF (p < 0.05). However, T2 had similar WBSF to T3 (p > 0.05). With aging, cooking loss increased (p < 0.01), while WBSF decreased (p < 0.01). Insoluble and total collagen decreased with aging (p < 0.05). Dietary energy density had no effect (p > 0.05) on collagen content, ribonucleotides and most fatty acids. However, T1 had more (p < 0.05) decanoic (C10:0), vaccenic (C18:1n9t), trans-linolelaidic (C18:2n6t), eicosatrienoic (C20:3n6), and docosadienoic (C22:2) acids than T2 and T3. In terms of lowest feed cost with comparable tenderness to T2 and highest energy density, T3 may be well suited for feeding NTC. Aging for 14 days improves LT tenderness, but its cooking loss may affect yield and juiciness.