Abstract
Abstract Improving pig growth performance, nutrient digestibility and pork quality is a continual goal of the pig breeding. For this reason, an increasing interest in using phytonutrients has been observed recently. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of Larix sibirica dihydroquercetin or dry distilled Rosa damascena petals on growth performance, carcass composition, meat quality, blood characteristics and histological changes in ovaries and liver in native Danube White fattening pigs. A total of 120 pigs were used in the experiment with duration of 45 days prior to harvest. The pigs were divided into five groups. The control group (C) was fed basal diet. The other four experimental groups were fed with the same diets containing either 3.5 or 7.5 mg dihydroquercetin/kg/d and 0.255 or 0.545 g dry distilled rose petals/kg/d. The supplementations with dihydroquercetin or dry distilled rose petals increased average body weight by 7.74-9.05%, average daily gain by 27.06-30.13%, and feed to gain ratio by 12.53-15.99% and decreased feed consumption by 5.24-13.84% and average liver weight by 10.53-21.12% compared to the control group. Two supplementations didn't cause pathological changes in histological structure of pigs' liver and ovaries, and didn't influence pH values and proximate composition of m. Longissimus thoracis and m. Semimebranosus . No pH determined stress-induced muscle damage was found and the pork carcasses were classified in classes E and U. The two used supplements reduced the blood LDL cholesterol by 13.27-14.29% as well as increased erythrocytes, platelets, haematocrit, mean red blood cell count, mean haemoglobin concentration in erythrocytes, triglycerides and total cholesterol.
Highlights
Improving pig growth performance, nutrient digestibility and pork quality is a continual goal of the pig breeding
Growth performance The pigs from the four experimental groups were found to have a higher final average body weight (ABW) (p < 0.05) than the control group C, as follows: pigs from group D1 by 9.05%, from group R2 by 7.74%, by R1 by 4.64% and by D2 by 3.81%, respectively. They had a higher (p < 0.01) average daily gain (ADG) too, in comparison to the control group C as follows: in group D1 the ADG was higher by 30.13%; in group R2 by 27.06%; in group R1 by 15.48%, and in group D2 by 13.11%, respectively (Table 2)
Those results proved the better efficiency of the higher concentration of 545 mg distilled rose (Rosa rugosa) petals (DDRP) compared to the lower concentration of 255 mg DDRP, where gaining of 1 kg body weight was realized by 0.297 kg less feed
Summary
Nutrient digestibility and pork quality is a continual goal of the pig breeding. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of Larix sibirica dihydroquercetin or dry distilled Rosa damascena petals on growth performance, carcass composition, meat quality, blood characteristics and histological changes in ovaries and liver in native Danube White fattening pigs. Lebret (2008) offers the nutritional quality of pork to be improved by modification of fatty acid composition and antioxidant level in meat For this purpose, the diet supplementation include vegetable sources with high n-3 fatty acids (Lebret 2008), essential oils (Yan et al 2010), herbal plants and their derivatives (Hashemi and Davoodi 2011), herbs and spices (Frankič et al 2009) and their extracts (Liu et al 2008), organic acids (Costa et al 2013), dried fruits and vegetable pomaces (Pieszka et al 2017) have been discussed. No information for use of DDRP as feed additive in pigs has been available
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