Effects of dietary hesperidin supplementation on lamb performance and meat characteristics.

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of supplementing feed with hesperidin or α-tocopheryl acetate on lambs' growth performance, carcass and meat characteristics. Sixteen male lambs were randomly assigned to four groups. One of the groups served as control and was given a basal diet, whereas the other three groups were given the same diet further supplemented with hesperidin at 1500 mg/kg, or hesperidin at 3000 mg/kg, or α-tocopheryl acetate at 200 mg/kg. At the end of the experiment, lambs were fasted, weighed and slaughtered. After overnight chilling, samples of Longissimus thoracis muscle were taken and were used for meat quality evaluation. No significant differences were observed in final body weight, body weight gain and organ weights among the four groups. pH, color, water-holding capacity, shear force values and intramuscular fat concentration of Longissimus thoracis muscle were also not significantly influenced by the dietary treatments. Measurement of lipid oxidation values showed that hesperidin supplementation positively influenced meat antioxidant properties during refrigerated storage.