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Methionine supplementation is a standard practice in commercial growing-finishing pig diets due to the high methionine (Met) requirements of pigs and the low Met content in typical corn-soybean diets. The commonly used Met supplements are DL-Met (99% pure), L-Met, and DL-methionine hydroxyl analog (MHA). Given that these Met sources are processed differently in the body, there is limited data on their impact on carcass cutability and meat quality. This study aims to investigate the effects of these supplemental methionine sources on growth performance, cutting yields, and meat quality.
Methods: At 9 weeks of age, 240 pigs were allocated to 60 single-sex pens for four-phase finishing trial lasting 104 days. Initially, pigs were fed a common grower diet until day 56. Then, pens were randomly allotted to one of the three experimental diets. For the remaining 7 weeks of the finisher phase, pigs (weighing approximately 80 kg) were fed diets containing L-Met, DL-Met, or MHA. The supplemental Met source provided 25% of the standardized ileal digestible Met + cysteine requirement, with MHA considered to be 65% as effective as L-Met or DL-Met. At the study’s conclusion, one pig per pen was slaughtered, and carcasses were analyzed for subprimal cuts to determine carcass-cutting yields. Various measures of loin quality, including proximate composition and shear force, were assessed.
Results: The results showed no significant differences in hot carcass weight, loin eye area, boneless carcass-cutting yield, or loin pH between the treatments. However, the DL-Met treatment tended to reduce drip loss (5.58%) compared to L-Met (7.03%) and MHA (6.68%). Similarly, cook loss was slightly lower with the DL-Met treatment (16.20%) compared to L-Met (18.18%) and MHA (18.50%).
Conclusion: These findings suggest that there are minimal differences in carcass cutability, and meat quality attributed to the Met source in finishing pig diets, using 65% bioefficacy for MHA relative to L-Met or DL-Met.
Remole HM, Htoo JK, Mendoza SM, Bradley CL, Dilger RN, Dilger AC, Harsh BN. Effects of supplemental methionine sources in finishing pig diets on growth performance, carcass characteristics, cutting yields, and meat quality. Translational Animal Science. 2024; 8: txae088. https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txae088