Effect of Supplemental Levels of Barley on Growing Performance, Meat Quality and Blood Properties in Swine

This study was conducted to investigate effects of dietary anthocyanin fortified barley (AFB) or whole crop barley (WCB) on growing performance, meat quality and blood properties in swine at late fattening phase. Swine performance was not significantly differed (p>0.05) but average daily gain and average daily feed intake tended to increase in treatments. Meat quality parameters including pH, cooking loss, shear force and meat surface color were not influenced by the addition of barley in diet. However, DPPH content of longgissmus dorsi muscle was significantly increased in WCB10 compared to control, AFB5 and WCB5 (p<0.05). FRAP content of longgissmus dorsi muslce was higher in WCB5 than the AFB (p<0.05), thereby, a tendency in FRAP was not similar to that of DPPH. Only myristic acid (C14:0) was affected, and the lowest myristic acid was found when AFB was supplied to swine. A tendency was not determined in total protein and HDL-cholesterol content, however, control, WCB10 and AFB5 had high in total protein and showed significantly low values in HDL-cholesterol. Therefore, the results indicate that barley can be considered as an ingredient in swine diet, but further investigation is necessary.