Abstract:
To explore the effects of two compound Chinese herbal medicine additives on growth performance, slaughter performance and meat quality of pigs, 30 three-month-old “Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire” crossbred pigs with an average body weight of 32 kg were randomly divided into 3 groups with 10 pigs in each group(half male and half female), which were control group, experimental groupⅠ and experimental groupⅡ.Animals in the control group were fed a basal diet only. The animals in the experimental group Ⅰ and experimental group Ⅱ were fed the trial diet supplemented with 0.2% and 0.1% Chinese herbal medicine prescription(the addition ratios of the two Chinese herbal medicines were the recommended ratios for application), respectively. The pretrial period lasted for 14 days, and the trial period lasted for 90 days.The growth performance related indicators(initial weight, final weight, average daily gain, average daily feed intake, feed to gain ratio), slaughtering performance related index(carass weight, slaughter percentage, backfat thickness and lean meat percentage) and meat quality related indexes(shear force, drip loss rate, cooking loss rate and 16 kinds of fatty acids content in muscle)were measured.The results showed as follows: there was no significant difference in initial weight among all groups(P>0.05);compared with the control group, the final weight in the experimental group Ⅰand experimental group Ⅱ increased by 6.44%(P<0.05) and 5.66%(P<0.05); and the average daily gain increased by 8.65%(P>0.05) and 5.77%(P>0.05), respectively.Average daily feed intake was decreased by 9.89%(P>0.05) and 5.86%(P>0.05); feed to gain ratio was decreased by 17.11%(P<0.05) and 11.41%(P<0.05); carcass weight was increased by 5.46%(P<0.05) and 4.31%(P<0.05), respectively.Slaughter percentage was increased by 1.22%(P>0.05) and 1.45%(P>0.05); backfat thickness was decreased by 20.42%(P<0.01) and 8.79%(P>0.05); lean meat percentage was increased by 5.44%(P>0.05) and 5.97%(P>0.05); respectively.Shear force was decreased by 0.47%(P>0.05) and 17.06%(P<0.05); drip loss rate was decreased by 16.99%(P<0.05) and 10.92%(P>0.05); cooking loss rate was decreased by 11.84%(P>0.05) and 20.79%(P<0.05), respectively. Compared with the control group, the contents of kwai acid, lauric acid and linolenic acid in the muscle decreased significantly(P<0.05) in the experimental group Ⅰ, while the contents of heptadecenoic acid, oleic acid, and cis-11-eicosenoic acid content increased significantly(P<0.05), and the contents of other fatty acids had no significant change(P>0.05). The contents of kwai acid and linolenic acid decreased significantly(P<0.05) in the experiment group Ⅱ,while the contents of palmitic acid, heptadecenoic acid and oleic acid were significantly increased(P<0.05), and the contents of other fatty acids had no significant changes(P>0.05).The content of saturated fatty acids in the muscle of the experiment group Ⅱwas significantly higher than that of control group(P<0.05), but the contents of polyunsaturated fatty acids and was significantly lower than that of control group(P<0.05).Compared with the experimental group I, the feed to gain ratio in the experimental groupⅡ increased by 6.88%(P<0.05), the shear force decreased by 16.67%(P<0.05). The content of saturated fatty acid increased significantly(P<0.05) and the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids decreased significantly(P<0.05).These results indicated that adding Chinese herbal medicine formula Ⅰ and Ⅱ in the diet could improve the growth performance, slaughter performance and meat quality of finishing pigs to a certain extent.Among them Chinese herbal medicine formula I was more effective in improving the growth performance of finishing pigs, and Chinese herbal medicine formula Ⅱ was more effective in improving the muscle quality of finishing pigs.