Oxidative stability and meat quality in beef cattle fed whole cottonseed and vitamin E

• Grant number: 13/01839-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Angélica Simone Cravo Pereira
• Grantee: Beatriz Mayumi Toda
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Beef is a food of high nutritional value. However, in recent times, this food has been associated with increased cholesterol, which may be a risk to human health, such as cardiovascular disease. This fact is related to the composition of fatty acids in beef, which has high rates of saturated fatty acid. Therefore, cottonseed is used as an alternative ingredient in the diet because, besides increasing the composition of unsaturated fatty acids in meat, whole cottonseed is a coproduct of low cost widely used as a supplement in ruminant feed. Will be confined 54 bulls of, Nellore, with approximately 350 kg of initial weight, the average age of 24 months. The animals will be slaughtered according to weight (block) and confinement time (approximately 75, 96, and 100 days). The diets employed will consist of different concentrates, which are included in cottonseed, corn dry grain, citrus pulp, sugarcane bagasse raw, and soybean meal. Thus, due to the increase of unsaturated fatty acids in the meat, the use of cottonseed in the diet will use the following treatments: a diet containing cottonseed and vitamin E, another only with cottonseed, beyond the control diet without cottonseed. The animals will be slaughtered and samples of the Longissimus in order to evaluate the shelf life (under simulated retail), fatty acid profile, cooking loss, objective tenderness, and sensory tenderness of the meat of these animals. (AU)