The effect of olive leaves supplementation on the feed digestibility, growth performances of pigs and quality of pork meat

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2009

Authors

Fatima Paiva Martins (Author) FCUP; Susana Barbosa (Author) Other; Vitor Pinheiro (Author) Other; Jose Luis Mourao (Author) Other; Divanildo Outor Monteiro (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Meat Science

Vol. 82

Pages: 438-443

ISSN: 0309-1740

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 54 Citations

Scopus - 58 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Agrarian Sciences > Other Agrarian Sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-003-H76

DOI: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2009.02.014

Abstract (EN): The influence of olive leaves supplementation on feed digestibility, growth performance of pigs and pork meat quality was investigated. Pigs fed diets with olive leaves at 5% (OL5) and 10% (OL10) levels had lower daily weight gain (DG) and daily feed intake (DFI) than pigs fed a conventional diet (OL0) but differences were not observed between groups fed with the different quantities of leaves. Additionally, pigs fed diets with leaves had the worst feed:gain ratio and showed a decrease in overall backfat. Chops from pigs fed the leaf diets had lower peroxide (PV) and conjugated diene (CD) contents than chops from pigs fed conventional diets. Moreover, chops from pigs fed with the higher quantity of leaves also showed a lower drip loss. After a storage period of 8 days at 4 degrees C, meat obtained from both OL5 and OL10 animals also differed (P < 0.05) in PV and %CD values from those fed a conventional diet. Since the fatty acid composition of the longissimus muscles was not different, differences in oxidative stability could only be explained by the significantly higher alpha-tocopherol concentration in intramuscular fat and backfat in pigs fed with olive leaf diets.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6