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 less than 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 1.05~3.68% and reduced drip loss by 5.08~19.77% and cooking loss by 2.67~7.67% 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.