Effect of Yeast Polysaccharide on Meat Quality of Finishing Pigs

This study was conducted to investigate the roles of yeast polysaccharide (a kind of yeast polysaccharide from Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences) on meat quality of finishing pigs. A total of Seventy-two Du×(Chang×Da), about 60kg BW) were allotted randomly to one of two dietary treatments on the basis of body weight in a completely randomized design. Each treatment consisted of six replicates with six pigs per replicate. All pigs received the same wheat-soybean meal diet. The Pigs in Group 1 (the control) were fed a corn-and soybean meal-based diet, whereas pigs in Groups 2 were fed the basal diet supplemented with 0.5g/kg yeast polysaccharide. This experiment ended when the pigs reached 110 kg body weight. On the last day of the experiment, pigs were food-deprived for 16 h before blood samples were obtained for analysis of biochemical indexes. Immediately thereafter, pigs were slaughtered for determination of carcass composition, muscle biochemical parameters, and meat quality. The results showed that yeast polysaccharide did not affect the growth performance of pig. However, yeast polysaccharide decreased the backfat thickness and suet weight significantly. yeast polysaccharide decreased drip loss of muscle at postmortem 24 and 48 h, while increased intramuscular fat content (P<0.05), it also improved the meat color (a* had a trend to increase and b value had a trend to decrease). Yeast polysaccharide decreased cortisol level in serum, while enhancing antioxidant capacity and glutathione peroxidase activity in serum (P<0.05), yeast polysaccharide also increased the IL-10, TGF-beta and decreased IL-1beta, IL-6. Additionally, yeast polysaccharide increased glutathione peroxidase activity and decreased the concentration of MDA in skeletal muscle (P<0.05) and decreased the concentration of aflatoxin in liver (P<0.05). Conclusion: yeast polysaccharide improved the meat quality by improving the antioxidant and immune function of finishing pigs.

The funds are from Key project of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2014A030311010) and the earmarked fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System (CARS-36, 2016LM1080).

corresponding author, maxianyong@gdaas.cn