Effects of Supplemental Chinese Traditional Herbal Medicine Complex on the Carcass Quality of Pigs

Abstract

This study was to investigate the effect of adding Chinese traditional herbal medicine complex in diets on the carcass quality of the pigs. 100 crossbred growing pigs (LYD) (44.5 ± 1.63 kg) were randomly divided into 5 groups including supplementation 0.0, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7% Chinese herbal medicine complex (CHM), and antibiotics groups (chlortetracycline 100 ppm and oxytetracycline 100 ppm) with four replicates. Experimental results indicated that meat polyphenol and flavonoids content in the group with 0.7% CHM addition, and the Hunter a value in the 0.5% and 0.7% CHM groups was better than those of the control and antibiotics groups (P<0.05). The panel evaluation revealed that the 0.7% CHM supplemented group had better values for juiciness and overall-acceptance than the control and antibiotics groups (P<0.05). In conclusion, supplementation of Chinese herbal medicine complex in pig’s diet had beneficial effects on meat quality, and 0.7% CHM addition had the best results for meat quality.