Certification of Nutritional Origin for beef of half-blood Angus-Nelore raised in the superprecoce production system by the environmental stable isotopes technique

• Grant number: 12/07360-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2012
• End date: April 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Cyntia Ludovico Martins
• Grantee: Lucas Domingos Ferreira Miranda
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 08/57411-4 - Environmental stable isotopes in animal science, AP.TEM

Abstract

The goal of this essay is to assess the isotopic assimilation of carbon-13 on the diet for the tissues of young bovines and the potential use of the carbon stable isotopes analysis as a tracing method for the young bovines' diet, in the blood, plasma, feces, liver, muscular and adipose tissue. Twenty-four non-castrated male animals will be used from the Angus x Nelore breed, with an average 220 kg initial live weight and coming from a suckling that uses the "creep-feeding" system. When arriving to the confinement, the animals will all be vaccinated, wormed and put into an adaptation period of 10 days that intends to uniform of their rumen population and to adapt them to the facilities and the handling. After the adaptation period, the animals will be distributed randomly between two treatments. The C3A treatment will consist of animals that will receive a diet for C3 isotope signal and the C4A treatment, that will consist of animals that will receive a diet for the C4 isotope signal. To assess the potential use of the stable isotopes technique as a diet tracing method, monthly samples of the diet and the ingredients used will be taken to monitor the carbon isotope signals. During the slaughter, blood, plasma and liver samples will be taken and after the carcass is cool, for 24 hours, samples of muscular and adipose tissue will be taken to monitor the carbon-13 isotope signal. Data will be submitted to a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and complemented by a grouping test. (AU)