Meat Quality of Feedlot Buffalo Fed with Forage Palm + Cottonseed Replacing High Concentrate Diet

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and carcass traits from buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) fed with different levels of cactus pear+cottonseed completely replacing high concentrate diet. The research was approved by Ethics Committee on Animal Experiment from Protocol No. 210/16. Twenty-four Murrah buffalos uncastrated males, with age between 8 and 10 month and BW 300 ± 14.1 kg (mean ± SD) were identified. The treatments consisted of diets with four levels of cactus pear + cotton seed replacing high concentrate diet (0, 33, 66 and 100% replacement based on total DM of the diets). The animals were fed a total mixed ration containing soybean meal, corn grain, and cactus pear+cottonseed to meet the nutritional requirements according to National Research Council (NRC, 1996) for average weight gain of 100 g/d. The diets were offered ad libitum, individually in two equivalent measures at 08:00 and 16:00 h. The experimental period was 125 d. After the experimental period the animals were fasted for 16 h and slaughtered. The carcasses were divided longitudinally into two carcasses and transferred to a refrigerator at 4ºC for a period of 24 h. Longissimus dorsi was removed from the one half of carcass for pH evaluation and the Sartorio muscle for physicochemical and sensory evaluation. The data were submitted to linear and quadratic polynomial contrasts using PROC REG procedures implemented in SAS statistical software (version 9.1.2). Differences were considered at P < 0.05. Cactus pear+cottonseed replacing high concentrate diets linearly reduced Warner-Bratzler Shear Force (P = 0.003) and color indexes, redness a* (P <0.001), yellowness b* (P = 0.007) and chrome C* (P <0.001) and presented a negative quadratic effect for the variable luminosity L* (P = 0.004). However, there were no effect for cooking weight loss, water retention capacity, pH at 0 and 24 h post-mortem and moisture, DM, protein, lipids and minerals of buffalo’s meat. The replacement of high concentrate diets by cactus pear+cottonseed did not change sensorial attributes of buffalo’s meat aroma (P = 0.951), flavor (P = 0.296), softness (P = 0.418), succulence (P = 0.556) and global acceptance (P = 0.374). Inclusion of cactus pear+cottonseed in complete replacement for the high concentrate diets for buffalos in feedlot improves the coloring of the meat without to change the sensorial attributes.