The metabotype of Nelore´s meat supplemented with essential oils

• Grant number: 24/00186-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2024
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Nara Regina Brandão Cônsolo
• Grantee: Fellipe Fonseca
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/08845-3 - The metabolomic approach to improve Nellore beef tenderness: a concept of metabotype and biomarkers, AP.JP

Abstract

Feedlot has been used as a strategy for the beef cattle finishing phase, improving the gain rate and feed efficiency, speeding in the return of the capital, and increasing the scale of production. However, the diets used in this system contain high levels of fermentable carbohydrates, which can generate metabolic disorders. To avoid such problems, antimicrobials have been widely used as growth-promoting food additives in animal production, benefiting animal health. However, now a day the use of antibiotics as growth promoters can lead to the development of antibiotic resistance in humans through the consumption of food. Thus, new lines of research have emerged to test and validate substitute additives to antibiotics to maintain animal health. In this case, functional oils have been widely investigated and used in animal and beef cattle nutrition, such products have proven action in the modulation of ruminal fermentation, avoiding the accumulation of acids and decrease in pH, avoiding metabolic disorders. However, nothing is known about the effect of these additives on meat metabolism. Since meat is the final product, and the demand for quality has been increasing, it is essential to study the effects that the products added to the diet of animals can have on the metabolism of meat, which can generate different organoleptic or nutritional characteristics in the final product. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the metabolic profile of the meat of Nelores bulls supplemented with a blend of essential oils, in order to replace the use of antibiotics in the diet of ruminants. To this end, 100 Nellore males were distributed in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement in a block design entirely, whose factors: i) days of confinement being 89 and 114 days; and ii) supplementation with a commercial product of essential oils (Crina®, DSM Tortuga) or monensin sodium. After the 89 and 114 days of confinement the animals were slaughtered and 24 hours post-mortem samples of the Longissimus thoracis muscle were collected and frozen in liquid nitrogen and transported to the USP of Pirassununga for metabolic analysis. Metabolomics will be performed in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and the spectra will be analyzed by the Chenomx software. This project will be developed in partnership with the Federal University of the South and Southeast of Pará and the DSM Tortuga Animal Nutrition and the feedlot part has already been carried out.