Pigs fed containing ractopamine and citrus extracts: performance and carcass characteristics/ Alimentacao de suinos em terminacao com dietas contendo ractopamina e extratos citricos: desempenho e caracteristicas de carcaca

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the addition of the citrus extracts and ractopamine in finishing pig diets. A Hundred eight pigs were used (54 males and 54 females) in a completely randomized design, blocked by sex and distributed in nine treatments: T1. control (C) (0ppm of the ractopamine e 0ppm of the citrus extracts), T2. C+10RAC (ractopamine, ppm), T3. C+20RAC, T4. C+250EC (citrus extracts, ppm), T5. C+500EC, T6. C+250EC+10RAC, T7. C+250EC+20RAC, T8. C+500EC + 10RAC and T9. C+500EC+20RAC. The final body weight (109.9 [+ or -] 3.60kg), feed intake (2.6 [+ or -] 0.24kg [d.sup.-1]), body weight gain (1.01 [+ or -] 0.09kg [d.sup.-1]), feed con-version ratio (2.7 [+ or -] 0.25), carcass length (97 [+ or -] 2.71cm), depth muscle (56.1 [+ or -] 5.63mm), and pH (5.9 [+ or -] 0.33) were not affected by treatments. There was a significant effect for the treatment with 20ppm of ractopamine, which was 5.7 higher, in relation to the treatment with 10ppm of ractopamine. The backfat thickness of control group was 35% higher than the ractopamine levels and the interaction was of 10ppm of ractopamine and 500ppm of citrus extracts. The lean meat in the control group was on average, 5.3% lower in relation to the ractopamine levels. Feeding of finishing pigs with diets containing ractopamine, citrus extracts and their interactions didn't affect performance, however affected some carcass characteristics.