Amino acid composition of meat, fatty acid composition of fat and content of some chemical elements in the tissues of male lambs fed monensin or lasalocid.

ABSTRACT

Tissues of slaughtered male lambs fed for 56 days on a feed mixture, supplemented with either monensin or lasalocid, were analysed and compared with tissues of control lambs fed similarly but without ionophore supplement. The analyses carried out were for the amino acid composition of meat, fatty acid composition of intramuscular and perirenal fat, and for some chemical elements in meat, liver and kidneys. In meat of both supplemented groups of lambs a significant increase in tyrosine was observed. In the fat tissues of monensin-fed lambs a higher proportion of odd-carbon acid (heptadecanoic acid) was observed; differences in some other fatty acids among the groups were also found. Some significant differences in the chemical elements analysed were observed, particularly in liver, few in kidneys and none in the muscle of ionophore-fed groups. The quality of meat, as judged by the analyses for the substances mentioned, was little changed by supplementation of monensin or lasalocid in the feed of male lambs.