Beta-agonists improve the carcass but may reduce meat quality in sheep

Abstract

Various beta-agonists appear to be effective compounds to improve carcass quality. They do this by reducing fatness, repartitioning the energy into extra lean tissue and improving killing-out proportion. Potentially though, they could also have undesirable effects on meat quality since catecholamines can stimulate glycogenolysis ante-mortem and so reduce the potential for muscle acidification after death. However, in contrast to the large amount of work on the effects of beta-agonists on carcass quality there appears to be little on meat quality. In this work therefore we examined the influence of two beta-agonists on aspects of lean meat quality in sheep. Twenty-four castrated male sheep were divided into three groups and Individually fed a complete pelleted diet containing 12.9% protein. One group was a control, one was given Cimaterol (10 mg/kg diet) and one was fed Clenbuterol (2 mg/kg diet).