Nutritional protocols to increase marbling in the carcass of feedlot Nellore cattle ranked by expected progeny difference

• Grant number: 19/20164-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2020
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Danilo Domingues Millen
• Grantee: Antonio Marcos Silvestre
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Tecnológicas. Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Dracena. Dracena , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this project is to study the relationship between corn grain processing and the use of calcium salts of fatty acids (SCAG) from vegetable oils, combined with the use of organic zinc and chromium, in the diet on performance and deposition of intramuscular fat in feedlot Nellore cattle and their microbial community. A 132 Nellore bulls, with initial body weight of approximately 380kg, will be used, blocked by weight and divided into 30 pens. Twelve animals will be slaughtered on day zero of the experiment as reference (2 per block). All animals will have known parents, so they will be divided into high and low EPD groups for marbling before being blocked by weight. The animals will be adapted for 14 days, with 3 diets, with 5% increase of concentrate among them, and the finishing diets will contain 84% of concentrate and the treatments will be divided into: T1) finely ground corn; T2) high moisture corn; T3) finely ground corn + SCAG; T4) high moisture corn+ SCAG; and T5) high moisture corn + SCAG + zinc and organic chromium. Sodium monensin will be included in all treatments at a dose of 25 ppm. The study will last 112 days, and will be evaluated several variables such as: Dry Matter Intake (DMI) and its fluctuation, daily weight gain (ADG) and carcass gain, feed efficiency (G:F), feed conversion (F:G), Hot Carcass Weight (HCW), marbling and subcutaneous fat deposition and Loin Eye Area (LEA), blood metabolic profile, biological efficiency, yield of major beef subprimal cuts, incidence of rumenitis and cecum lesions, liver abscesses and ruminal bacterial communities in order to establish a relationship between diet, rumen microbial community and intramuscular fat deposition between high and low EPD cattle for marbling. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SILVESTRE, Antonio Marcos. Nutritional strategies to optimize the productive efficiency of feedlot cattle. 2022. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia. Botucatu Botucatu.