The Effect of Ruminal pH Adjusting Additives on Some Meat Quality Parameters in Fattening Lambs Fed a High Concentrate Diet

The present experiment investigated the effect of pH adjusting additives on meat quality. Twenty-four Arabi male lambs with four months old and initial body weight of 23.9±3.15 kg were used in a completely randomized design with three treatments and eight replicates. The lambs were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: 1-control (no additive) 2-control + Sodium bicarbonate (1% daily diet in two meals) 3-control + Megasphaera elsdenii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (bacterial-yeast). At the end of the experiment, five lambs from each treatment that was closer to the average weight were selected, weighed, and slaughtered. The carcass components were separated and weighed. A sample of the Longissimus dorsi muscle between ribs 12 and 13 was prepared to determine the pattern of carcass fatty acids, meat colorimetric measurements. The concentrations of linolenic acid, total W3 fatty acids, stearic acid, docosahexenoic acid (DHA), and W6/W3 ratio were higher in treatments containing pH-adjusting additives than in control treatments (P<0.05). The concentration of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in bacterial-yeast treatment was numerically higher than in control and sodium bicarbonate buffer. The concentration of linoleic acid and the ratio of PUFA/SFA in the control treatment were higher than the treatments containing pH-adjusting additives (P<0.05). The meat protein percentage, Hu angle (H*), carcass weight, and dressing percentage in bacterial-yeast recipient treatment were higher than other treatments (P<0.05). The redness index of meat (a*) and Chroma (C*) were higher in Sodium bicarbonate and control treatments (P<0.05). Therefore, pH adjusting additives, especially bacterial-yeast treatment, could be a way to improve some of the meat beneficial parameters for human nutrition. Because the results of the present experiment show that the additives used to adjust the pH and manipulate ruminal fermentation while feeding the lambs with high concentration diets not only do not adversely affect the chemical composition and quality of the meat but can also benefit the animal and human health that consume the product of these animals.