Effects of dietary vitamin E supplementation on fattening performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality traits of Karya male lambs

Abstract. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary vitamin E supplementation on performance, slaughter-carcass characteristics and meat quality traits of Karya male lambs. Lambs weaned approximately at 10 weeks of age were divided into two groups. After the 10 days adaptation period, control group (CG, n7) and vitamin E group (VEG, n=6) lambs were fed on with concentrates ad libitum and 100 g hay/lamb/day for 70 days. In addition the VEG received a supplement on concentrates of 45 mg/lamb/day vitamin E during the fattening period. The meat quality traits were determined using m. longissimus dorsi (LD) obtained from split between 12th and 13th ribs on both groups lambs. Daily gain and feed conversion efficiency were 259 g and 5.3 for CG and 266 g and 4.7 for VEG, respectively. There was no vitamin E supplementation effect on the average daily weight gain and feed conversion efficiency (P>0.05). However, VEG had 10.5 % higher feed conversion efficiency than control lambs. Slaughter and carcass characteristics of lambs were not significantly affected from vitamin E supplementation (P>0.05). There were no effects of vitamin E supplementation on lightness (L*), redness (a*), yellowness (b*) and pH during 12-day aerobic storage. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) values at day 2 were not affected by the vitamin E treatment. However, TBARS values on day 4 and 8 (P<0.05), and day 12 (P<0.01) were higher in the CG than in the VEG. Although not significant, 10 % higher feed conversion efficiency in VEG animals might suggest that vitamin E supplementation is useful to improve fattening performance.