Effects of maternal vitamin D3 status on quality traits of longissimus dorsi muscle in offspring pigs during postmortem storage

Abstract

Maternal nutritional status has long lasting consequences on meat quality in offspring. We sought to determine how maternal vitamin D3 would influence quality traits of longissimus dorsi muscle in offspring pigs during postmortem storage. A total of 72 offspring pigs (150 d, Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) obtained from 3 sow feeding groups (9 sows per group) which contained 200 (low vitamin D3, LD), 800 (normal vitamin D3, ND) and 3200 (high vitamin D3, HD) IU of vitamin D3/kg basal diet during pregnancy to investigate the effects of maternal vitamin D3 status during pregnancy on meat quality attributes such as pH, shear force, water holding capacity (WHC), color, and low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) T2 relaxation times of longissimus dorsi muscles in meat samples of offspring pigs during postmortem storage. The results showed that during postmortem storage times, HD group had higher pH value and WHC, while lower T21 relaxation time compared with LD group (P < 0.05), shear force of ND group was higher than that of HD group, while lower than that of LD group (P < 0.05), ND and HD groups had lower L*, b* values, T22 relaxation time, and higher a* value compared with LD group (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, postmortem storage decreased pH value of ND group, WHC of LD group, and L*, a* values of LD and ND groups, but increased b* values of LD and ND groups, and T22 relaxation time of all groups were insignificant (P < 0.05). These results indicated that maternal vitamin D3 status affected pH value, WHC, shear force, meat color and LF-NMR T2 relaxation time of longissimus dorsi muscles, which improved meat quality attribute and eating quality in offspring pigs through regulating meat quality index during postmortem storage.