The effects of a combined implant of trenbolone acetate and oestradiol-17β on protein and energy metabolism in growing beef steers

Abstract

1. The effects on growth performance, energy and nitrogen retention, and leucine metabolism of a subcutaneous combined implant of 140 mg trenbolone acetate (TBA)+20 mg oestradiol-17β (OE) have been examined in Hereford × Friesian beef steers (280–520 kg). Comparisons were made both with the same animals before implantation and with untreated control animals maintained under similar physiological and nutritional conditions.2. Over a 10 week period the implanted steers showed an improvement in rate of live-weight gain (LWG) of 0.5–0.6 with an even greater proportional increase in N retention compared with control animals. Total energy retention was unaffected and thus the ratio, protein energy: total energy gain was 0.43 for implanted steers compared with 0.26 for untreated animals.3. Estimates of protein synthesis and protein oxidation were obtained from the specific radioactivities of blood free-leucine and exhaled carbon dioxide during continuous infusions of [1-14C]leucine. Whole-body protein synthesis, based on metabolic size, and amino acid fractional oxidation remained similar for control steers throughout the experiment. Steroid-treated steers showed a slight decline in synthesis which was significant (P < 0.05) at week + 5 post-implant while amino acid oxidation was significantly lower at weeks +2 (P < 0.01) and + 5 (P < 0.05) compared with control animals. The ratio, protein deposition: protein synthesis was 0.05 for control animals but 0.08–0.10 for steroid-treated animals after implantation.4. There was a slight decrease in urinary NT-methylhistidine elimination after implantation which suggested that muscle protein degradation may be reduced although the estimated decrease was insufficient to account for the total improvement in growth rate and N retention.5. The results suggest that for both control and treated steers, less than 0.5 of total urine N elimination was derived directly from tissue catabolism of protein and amino acids.6. The combined action of the exogenous steroids in the promotion of protein gain, primarily through a decrease in total protein degradation with little alteration of total energy retention, is compared with present understanding of the role of the endogenous sex hormones.