Nutritional composition of farm chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera) meat

Enhancement of Rabbit Meat Functionality by Replacing Traditional Feed Raw Materials with Alternative and More Sustainable Freshwater Cladophora glomerata Macroalgal Biomass in Their Diets

Today's challenges in the animal husbandry sector, with customers' demand for more beneficial products, encourage the development of strategies that not only provide more sustainable production from the field to the table but also ensure final product functionality. Thus, the current research was aimed at replacing some traditional feed raw materials in rabbit diets with C. glomerata biomass to improve the functionality of meat. For this purpose, thirty weaned (52-d-old) Californian rabbits were assigned to 3 dietary treatments: standard compound diet (SCD), SCD + 4% C. glomerata (CG4), and SCD + 8% C. glomerata (CG8). At the end of the feeding trial, 122-d-old rabbits were slaughtered, longissimus dorsi (LD) and hind leg (HL) muscles were dissected post-mortem, and moisture, protein, and lipid profiles were determined. Results revealed that CG4 treatment can increase protein (22.17 g/kg), total (192.16 g/kg) and essential (threonine, valine, methionine, lysine, and isoleucine) amino acid levels in rabbit muscles. Both inclusions gradually reduced fat accumulation in muscles (CG8 < CG4 < SCD) but improved the lipid profile's nutritional value by decreasing saturated fatty acids (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and increasing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). As the dose of C. glomerata increased, the level of lipid oxidation decreased. Biomass supplementation enhanced PUFA/SFA and h/H levels while decreasing thrombogenicity index (TI) and atherogenic index (AI) levels in rabbit muscles, potentially contributing to the prevention of heart disease. Overall, dietary supplementation with C. glomerata biomass may be a more beneficial and sustainable nutritional approach to functionally enhancing rabbit meat.

Proximate Chemical Composition, Amino Acids Profile and Minerals Content of Meat Depending on Carcass Part, Sire Genotype and Sex of Meat Rabbits

Simple Summary

Rabbit meat is popular with consumers mainly for its high-quality protein. Among the main factors influencing the characteristics of rabbit meat proteins to appertain the breed, genotype, carcass part and age. Conventional production of rabbit meat in many European countries is mainly ensured by intensive production systems, when commercial meat-type albinotic rabbit crossbreds are used. However, spotted and solidly coloured lines of meat rabbit breeds have begun to be used in rabbit breeding schemes as some consumers have begun to negatively perceive meat from albinotic coloured rabbits. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of the sire genotype, sex and carcass part on the composition of meats of rabbits fattened under conditions where no synthetic drugs were used. Crossbreeding of Mecklenburger Schecke sires with a commercial dam line of HYLA rabbits resulted in a worse nutritional quality of meat proteins in progeny. These findings point to a possible risk of alterations in the nutritional quality of meat proteins when using different rabbit sire genotypes than those originally intended for the specific commercial crossbreeding scheme.

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of the sire genotype, sex and carcass part on the composition of the meat of rabbits, which were fattened under conditions where no synthetic drugs were used. As for carcass parts, the higher content of both total amino acids (AA) and all essential AA (EAA) monitored was found in the Longissimus thoracis et lumborum (LTL) muscle as compared to hind leg meat (p ˂ 0.001). Significant effects of the rabbit sire genotype and the genotype x sex interaction on proportions of some AA in meat were found (p ˂ 0.001). Crossbreeding of the Mecklenburger Schecke (MS) sires with a commercial dam line of HYLA rabbits resulted in a lower proportion of the total AA and all EAA monitored in meats of MS sired males as compared to MS sired females and HYLA rabbits (p ˂ 0.05). The sex-related effect on AA profile was not so noticeable in final commercial crossbreds of HYLA rabbits when compared to MS sired progeny. These findings point to a possible risk of alterations in the nutritional quality of meat proteins when using different rabbit sire genotypes than those originally intended for the specific commercial crossbreeding scheme. However, on the contrary, higher contents of magnesium (p ˂ 0.05), manganese (p ˂ 0.001) and zinc (p ˂ 0.05) were found in meats of MS sired progeny as compared to HYLA rabbits.