Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Hoshang Jafari ¹
• Farshid Fatahnia ²
• Yahya Abaspor ³
• poorya Dadvar ⁴
• Saifali Varmaghany ⁵
• manochehr Tahmasebi ⁶

¹ Animal Science Research Department, Ilam Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Ilam, Iran.

² Associate Professor, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture Science, Ilam University, Iran.

³ Ph.D. Student of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture Science, Ilam University

⁴ Assistant Professor, Animal Science Research Department, Ilam Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Ilam, Iran

⁵ Department of Animal Science Research, Ilam Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Ilam, Iran

⁶ Assistant professor, Ilam Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Ilam, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Water shortage, low quality soils, and insufficient supply of feed are the main limitations for livestock production in arid and semiarid regions of the word. Therefore, there is a demand to cultivate new crops for these areas as an alternative to crops, which are hypersensitive to low fertile situation. Cultivation of acceptable-quality unusual plants, which are resistant to harsh environmental conditions is a proper way to overcome these challenges. Artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) is a highly productive crop and produce a large amount of forage per unit of area. Artichoke forage has good nutritional value for ruminant animals. In other hand, artichoke as a medicinal plant contains many secondary compounds including polyphenols, cynarin, chlorogenic acid, carotenoids and natural antioxidants. Lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride and carcass fat have been reported by these compounds in animals fed artichoke products. Therefore, we hypothesized that addition of artichoke forage to diet of fattening lambs may has beneficial effects on their carcass quality traits.
Material and methods: In order to evaluate the effects of dietary artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) level instead of alfalfa on meat fatty acids profile and carcass quality traits of fattening lambs, this experiment was conducted using 24 Kurdish male lambs (initial body weight of 30.2 ± 2.35 kg) in a completely randomized design with three treatments and eight replications. Experimental treatments included: 1) control (diet without artichoke hay), 2) diet containing 10% artichoke hay, and 3) diet containing 20% artichoke hay. The experiment was lasted for 100 days including 20 d of adaptation period and 80 d of data recording and samples collection. At the end of experiment, all lambs were weighed after an overnight fast (16 h). All lambs were slaughtered, and hot carcass were weighed. The carcass was split into two equal halves (left and right). The right half of carcass was cut into six primal cuts including neck, shoulder, breast-flank, loin, leg and tail. Meat chemical composition, color parameters and fatty acids profile were measured.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that incorporation of artichoke to the diet improved the daily weight gain of lambs (P<0.05). Also, hot carcass weight and dressing percentage increased linearly with increasing artichoke level in the diet (P<0.05). Dietary artichoke level had no effect on carcass cuts percentage (neck, shoulder, breast flank, loin, leg, and tail), meat chemical composition (moisture, protein, fat and ash) and color parameters (lightness, redness, yellowness). Meat fatty acids profile (including saturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acids) were not affected by artichoke level in the diets.
Conclusion: According to the results, feeding fattening lambs a diet contained artichoke (up to 20% of total mixed ration) has no detrimental effects on meat quality and improve their dressing percentage.
 

Keywords

• Artichoke
• carcass cuts
• color parameters
• meat chemical composition
• meat fatty acids