Carcass characteristics and pork quality of pigs fed diets containing crude glycerin and ractopamine

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of increasing concentrations of crude glycerin, with or without ractopamine, in the diet of finishing barrows on carcass characteristics and pork quality. The experimental design was a randomized complete block, in a 4 x 2 factorial scheme, with four concentrations of crude glycerin (0, 100, 150, or 200 g/kg) and two concentrations of ractopamine (0 or 10 mg/kg). There was no interaction between the crude glycerin concentrations and the ractopamine use as well as there was no isolated effect of the dietary crude glycerin concentration for all the evaluated traits. However, the dietary ractopamine increased the hot (p = 0.021) and cold (p=0.020) carcass weight, the hot carcass yield (p = 0.038), the shear force (p = < 0.0001), lightness (L* index) (p = 0.043), hue angle (h*) (p = 0.026), and C16:1 (p = 0.023) concentration in the loin. Moreover, the dietary ractopamine decreased the red content (a* value) (p = 0.043), the activity of C16-C18 elongase (p = 0.037) and the C18:0 (p = 0.021) concentration in the loin. The inclusion of up to 200 g/kg crude glycerin in the diet of finishing pigs may be used as a partial substitute for dietary corn, combined or not with 10 mg/kg ractopamine, without impair the evaluated carcass characteristics and the quality of the loin.