Effects of dietary beta-alanine supplementation on growth performance, meat quality, carnosine content, amino acid composition and muscular antioxidant capacity in Chinese indigenous Ningxiang pig

beta-alanine has been demonstrated to improve carcass traits and meat quality of animals. However, no research has been found on the effects of dietary beta-alanine in the meat quality control of finishing pigs, which are among the research focus. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary beta-alanine supplementation on growth performance, meat quality, carnosine content, amino acid composition and muscular antioxidant capacity of Chinese indigenous Ningxiang pigs. The treatments contained a basal diet (control, CON) and a basal diet supplemented with 600 mg/kg beta-alanine. Each treatment group consisted of five pens, with five pigs per pen. Results showed that compared with CON, supplemental beta-alanine did not affect the final body weight, average daily gain, average daily feed intake and the feed-to-gain ratio of pigs. Dietary beta-alanine supplementation tended to increase the pH(45 min) (p = 0.071) while decreasing the shear force (p = 0.085) and the drip loss (p = 0.091). Moreover, it improved (p < 0.05) the activities of glutathione peroxidase and catalase and lessened (p < 0.05) malondialdehyde concentration. Added beta-alanine in diets of finishing pigs could enhance the concentrations of arginine, alanine, and glutamate (p < 0.05) in the longissimus dorsi muscle and tended to raise the levels of cysteine, glycine and anserine (p = 0.060, p = 0.098 and p = 0.091 respectively). Taken together, our results showed that dietary beta-alanine supplementation contributed to the improvement of the carcass traits, meat quality and anserine content, the amelioration of muscle antioxidant capacity and the regulation of amino acid composition in Chinese indigenous Ningxiang pigs.