Grape pomace in diets for Podolian and crossbred young bulls: effects on growth performance, meat quality, and economic analysis of meat production

Le résumé fourni par la source

The use of local by-products in diets for beef cattle is a useful tool for circular economy; Apulia is the second Italian region for wine making that leads to the production of great amounts of grape pomace (GP), that has a high nutritional potential due to the presence of many bioactive compounds. Forty-eight male calves were used: 16 purebred Podolian, 16 Limousine × Podolian (L×P) and 16 Marchigiana × Podolian (M×P) crossbreeds. Within each genotype, two homogenous groups of eight animals were made and fed a control diet or a diet containing 20% Grape Pomace (GP). Animals were slaughtered at 600 kg. Podolian young bulls needed a longer period to reach the slaughtering weight, with significant differences as compared to the M×P (p< 0.05) and to the L×P (p< 0.01) bulls. L×P and P young bulls showed a greater GP feed consumption (p< 0.01). The carcasses from L×P young bulls were classified as U, while M×P and Podolian were scored as R. The Malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration of meat was lowered (p< 0.05) by the dietary inclusion of GP in all the genotypes. Ageing across 3, 9 and 14 days lowered the shear force in raw and cooked meat, that was greater (p< 0.05) in P bulls as compared to the other two crossbreeds; the MDA content of meat (p< 0.05) increased during storage, irrespective of the diet and genotype. The diet containing GP led to a lower (p< 0.05) concentration of palmitic acid, total Saturated Fatty Acids and total Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acids, while increasing (p< 0.01) the concentration of Linoleic acid, total Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids, total n-6 and total CLA (p< 0.05), in all the genotypes. For the M×P crossbred bulls, the GP variation rate was negative, while it was positive for the other two genotypes, showing a range of 0.46% in Podolian young bulls to 2.00% in L×P bulls. This preliminary study confirms the usefulness of dietary inclusion of grape pomace in young bulls’ diet with benefits in terms of economic circularity, and meat production and quality.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.