Abstract
An experiment was carried out using 468 gilts, with an initial weight of 84.77 ± 7.20 kg and allotted into 36 pens to evaluate the effect of the addition of ractopamine in the diets on performance, characteristics and yields of carcass comercial cuts, composition and retail cuts of ham. It was used a randomized block design with four levels of ractopamine (0, 5, 10 and 15 mg/kg of diet) and nine replicates with 13 animals per experimental unit. The initial body weight of the animals was the criterion used to form the blocks. It was not observed any effects of levels of ractopamine on daily weight gain of the animals. Daily feed intake presented a linear reduction when the level of dietary ractopamine was increased. Feed conversion of the animals was linearly improved with the inclusion of ractopamine in the diet. Significant differences were verified at fat and meat proportions on the carcass and wholesale cuts. There was a decreasing linear effect caused by ractopamine on the quantity and depth of fat and a linear increasing effect on lean percentage, on ham meat and on the weights of semimembranosus and gluteus medius. Diets for finishing gilts should contain 15 mg/kg of ractopamine per kg.
Highlights
With the purpose of meeting consumer profile changes, which is increasingly demanding pork meat with less fat, the industry and producers have been working to increase the lean proportion in pork carcass
Among the factors that may influence the response of using dietary ractopamine, the most significant variations were associated with the concentrations of this agonist, the amount of lysine and other amino acids in the diet, and with the gender and age of animals at the beginning of its utilization
The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of ractopamine on performance, carcass characteristics, carcass yield, wholesale cuts, composition and proportion of ham cuts from gilts slaughtered at 110 kg
Summary
Pedro Henrique Watanabe, Maria Cristina Thomaz, Leonardo Augusto Fonseca Pascoal, Urbano dos Santos Ruiz, Everton Daniel, José Cristani. ABSTRACT - An experiment was carried out using 468 gilts, with an initial weight of 84.77 ± 7.20 kg and allotted into 36 pens to evaluate the effect of the addition of ractopamine in the diets on performance, characteristics and yields of carcass comercial cuts, composition and retail cuts of ham. It was used a randomized block design with four levels of ractopamine (0, 5, 10 and 15 mg/kg of diet) and nine replicates with 13 animals per experimental unit.
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