Effect of the antioxidant type phytonutrients diet supplementation on lamb quality

Abstract

The aim of the study was to estimate the effect of Siberian larch dihydroquercetin and dry distilled rose petals supplementation of lambs’ diet on the quality of meat obtained from Bulgarian dairy synthetic population sheep. The experiments were performed with 30 clinically healthy male lambs aged 65 days with equal live weight. There were studied one control group (C) fed for 50 days with ground alfalfa + granulated compound feed and two experimental groups (D) and (R) fed on the same diet supplemented either with 7.5 mg dihydroquercetin/kg/day or with 545 mg DDRP/kg/day respectively. The DDRP diet supplementation increases the sensory scores, carotenoids and essential amino acids of muscles (P ≤ 0.05) but does not affect the content of tocopherols. No significant differences (P > 0.05) were found comparing the proximate composition of the group C, R and D. Compared to control group C the supplementation of lambs’ diet with dihydroquercetin and DDRP contributes to a certain increase in the sterols in muscle and adipose tissues but not in liver tissue (P ≤ 0.05). A reduction of WHC of m. Longissimus dorsi and microbial deterioration in both muscles and perirenal fatty tissue was found in experimental groups D and R.