Effects of Mineral Methionine Hydroxy Analog Chelate in Diets on Meat Quality, Muscular Amino Acids and Fatty Acids in Pigs

Background: Organic trace minerals can improve the improve the bioavailability and reduce the environmental pollution, but the effect of organic trace minerals on meat quality of pigs are still unclear. Methods: Adult healthy 33.68 kg pigs (n=253) were randomly allotted to six dietary treatments, with 6 pens per treatment and 7-8 pigs per pen in a completely randomized design: 1) ITM: inorganic trace minerals with 20, 100, 40 and 60 mg/kg of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn in sulfate form; 2) T1: ITM was replaced with 20% mineral methionine hydroxy analog chelate (MMHAC); 3) T2: ITM was replaced with 40% MMHAC; 4) T3: ITM was replaced with 60% MMHAC; 5) T4: ITM was replaced with 80% MMHAC; 6) T5: ITM was replaced with 100% MMHAC. Result: In the present study, shoulder fat thickness, the 6th to 7th rib fat thickness (P<0.05), the 10th rib fat thickness, the last rib fat thickness and lumbosacral fat thickness tended to decrease with the increase of the MMHAC. In addition, MMHAC increased pH by 1.053.68% and reduced drip loss by 5.0819.77% and cooking loss by 2.677.67% compared with the ITM group. Furthermore, MMHAC reduced methionine by 3.51-7.02%, phenylalanine by 1.14-3.41%, arginine by 1.52-3.79% compared with ITM group. Our results showed that MMHAC improved carcass traits, meat quality and meat flavor partly compared with the ITM group.