Effects of salbutamol on pork quality

Objectives of this research were to study effects of salbutamol on chemical composition of M. longissimus dorsi and on pork quality, such as pH-value, temperatures, percentage of cooking loss, muscle color (L* value and a* value), shear force, fiber diameter and collagen fiber of the muscle. Two hundreds of three crossbred barrows were randomly distributed to two dietary treatments containing of 0 and 15 ppm salbutamol in the diets. M. longissimus dorsi on the left side of each carcass, averaged 80-90 kg. Were used to assess the pork qualities. T-test was used as a statistic to compare means of studied traits of the both samples. The result was shown that salbutamol in diet did not significantly affect percentage of moisture and ash. But it had affected to increase percentage of protein, calcium and phosphorus in the muscle (22.42, 0.01 and 0.20 for the control and 23.29, 0.02 and 0.21 for the salbutamol treated, respectively) at P0.01. Although the salbutamol in diet no significantly affect the pH value at 45 min post mortem, however, at 18 and 24 hr post mortem, the muscle pH value of the treated pigs were significantly increased than those of the control (5.89 and 5.76 at 18 hr, and 5.64 at 24 hr, respectively). The temperatures at 45 min and at 18 hr post mortem in the muscle of the treated pigs had significantly higher than those of the control (40.76 and 39.35 deg C at 45 min, and 6.86 and 4.25 deg C at 18 hr post mortem). The salbutamol treated pigs had significantly decreased the percentage of cooking loss than that of the control (30.22 and 33.29 percent). The muscle color of the treated pigs was darker than that of the control (50.80 and 53.09). Furthermore, the salbutamol had also affected the shear force of the muscle and its fiber diameter (6.33 and 5.80 kg/cubic cm for the shear force of treated pigs and the control, and 127.72 and 104.02 micron for the fiber diameter, respectively). There was no significantly difference in collagen fiber of the both (P0.05).