Animal Nutrition (Jun 2021)

Dietary supplementation with betaine or glycine improves the carcass trait, meat quality and lipid metabolism of finishing mini-pigs

  • Yinzhao Zhong,
  • Zhaoming Yan,
  • Bo Song,
  • Changbing Zheng,
  • Yehui Duan,
  • Xiangfeng Kong,
  • JinPing Deng,
  • Fengna Li

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 2
pp. 376 – 383

Abstract

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The objective of the study is to evaluate and compare the effects of betaine or glycine on carcass trait, meat quality and lipid metabolism of finishing Huan Jiang mini-pigs. Betaine called trimethylglycine is a methyl derivative of glycine, but few researches were conducted to compare the impact of dietary betaine and glycine on pigs. One hundred and forty-four Huan Jiang mini-pigs (body weight = 10.55 ± 0.15 kg; 70 d) were randomly divided to 3 treatment groups (basal diet, glycine or betaine). Results indicated that dietary betaine increased the average daily gain (ADG) and final weight (P < 0.05). Dietary glycine or betaine markedly reduced average backfat thickness (P < 0.05) and heightened lean percentage (P < 0.01) compared to the control group. Moreover, in comparison with the control group, betaine significantly improved the redness (a∗) and tenderness (shear force) of the longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle (P < 0.05), whereas glycine only raised the value of a∗ of the LD muscle (P < 0.05). These results showed that diet supplemented with 0.25% betaine and equimolar amounts of glycine could regulate cascass trait and meat quality of finishing Huan Jiang mini-pigs, and the effect of betaine was superior to that of glycine.

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