Effects of Dietary Bamboo Charcoal on the Carcass Characteristics and Meat Quality of Fattening Pigs

The purpose of this study was to investage the effects of dietary bamboo charcoal on the carcass characteristics and meat quality of fattening pigs. Fifty four crossed pigs of $61.0{\pm}1.0$ kg body weight (BW) were grouped and housed in 6 animals (3 barrows and 3 gilts) per pen and 3 replications per treatment. The basal diet (C) was supplied with 0.3% bamboo charcoal as treatment 1 (T1) and 0.6 % as treatment 2 (T2). The pigs were fed that experimental diet for 42 days, thereafter 10 longissimus dorsi (LD) per treatment were randomly collected at the time the pigs reached an average weight of $110.0{\pm}5.0$ kg. The carcass weight, backfat thickness, and the carcass grade were better (p<0.05) in the pigs fed bamboo charcoal than in C. The crude fat concentration of LD was higher (p<0.05) in T1 than in C. While the composition of stearic acid and arachidonic acid was lower (p<0.05) in treatments than in C, the composition of oleic acid and linoleic acid of treatments was higher (p<0.05) than C. The physico-chemical characteristics, such as meat color and amino acid composition of LD were not affected (p>0.05) by the supplemented bamboo charcoal. In conclusion, dietary supplementation with bamboo charcoal improved the carcass grade and fatty acids composition of pork meat from fattening pigs, where the composition of unsaturated fatty acids was increased, but that of saturated fatty acids was decreased.