Effects of Chestnut Tannin on Growth Performance, Meat Quality and Muscle Fatty Acid Composition of Tan Sheep

Abstract

The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of adding chestnut tannins to the diet on growth performance, meat quality and muscle fatty acid composition of 3-month-old Tan sheep. Twenty-seven 3-month-old ram lambs of similar weight and good health were randomly divided into three groups, there were 3 replicates in each group and 3 lambs in each replicate. The control group was fed a basal diet with a 55∶45 ratio of concentrate to crude, and the test groups were fed the test diet supplemented with 2 000 (test group Ⅰ) and 4 000 mg / kg DM (test group Ⅱ) of chestnut tannin in the basal diet, respectively. The pre-experiment lasted for 10 days, and the experiment lasted for 60 days. The results showed as follows: 1) the total weight gain and average daily weight gain of test group Ⅱ were significantly higher than those of the control group (P<0. 05), the dry matter intake of test group Ⅱ was significantly higher than that of test group Ⅰ (P < 0.01), and the dry matter intake of test group Ⅰ was significantly higher than that of the control group (P< 0.01) . 2) The addition of chestnut tannin to the ration reduced the water loss rate and shear force of Tan sheep meat. 3) The content of oleic acid (C18∶1n9c) was the highest in the muscle of the sheep in each group, followed by palmitic acid (C16 ∶ 0) and stearic acid (C18 ∶ 0), and the contents of eicosapentaenoic acid (C20 ∶5n3) and α-linolenic acid (C18∶3n6) were higher in the test groupⅠ and test groupⅡ than the control group, and the difference was extremely significant (P<0.01) . The content of saturated fatty acids (SFA) in each group did not change significantly (P>0.05), but the contents of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) of test groupⅠ and test group Ⅱ were higher than those of the control group. In conclusion, the addition of chestnut tannins to the ration has no significant effect on meat quality indexes, but improves the growth performance of lambs, increases the contents of MUFA and PUFA in muscle, and improves the nutritional value of muscle.