The effect of feeding a high-fiber and -fat diet on pig meat quality

An abstract of a study by Conte et al assessing the effects of feeding pigs with high-fat and low-digestible-carbohydrate diets in the late finishing period (last 29 d) on meat quality is presented. Results indicated neither differences between treatments nor an interactive effect (P > 0.05) between sex and treatment for final live weight and any of the postmortem measured variables. These results may indicate either the inefficiency of the applied dietary treatments for meat quality improvement or, based on the low exsanguination blood lactate values (mean and confidence interval of 5.2 mmol/L and 5.8-6.7 mmol/L, respectively), that the stress imposed on pigs before slaughter in this study might not have been sufficiently high to result in meat quality variation.