Effects Of High Dietary Fluorine On Meat Quality Of Broilers

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of excessive fluorine (F) in the corn-soybean ration on the meat quality indexes, such as apparent change, shelf-life and flavor et al., by determining the F content, meat color, pH value, water holding capacity, tenderness, oxidative damage and changes of flavor substances in the breast muscle.280one-day-old healthy Avian broilers were involved in this experiment, randomly divided into four groups including a control group and three high F groups. The control group was fed on23mg F/kg diet and the three high F groups were fed on400,800, and1200mg F/kg diet respectively, and provided with water ad libitum for42days. The sampling time points was14,28,42days of age. Results were as follows:1.Measurement of the effects of meat color, water holding capacity, tenderness and the F accumulation by high F diet showed that:1) at the age of42days, the F content in the dry matter of breast muscle was significantly higher than the control group (P<0.01).2) There were no obvious effects on the drip loss and shearing force value while feeding the broilers on high F diet (P>0.05).3) High F diet had no obvious change on a*value, and b*and L*value compared with the control, especially the L*value (P<0.05or0.01).2. Measurement of the effects of pH value and oxidative damage by high F diet showed that:1) there was no significant change of pH value(P>0.05) in the breast muscle40minutes after taking samples at the age of42days.2) Excessive F induced significant decrease of GSH content, the ability to inhibit hydroxyl radical and the activities of SOD, CAT and GSH-Px, and increased the MDA content (P<0.05or0.01). This trend is more obvious as long as the F content increase and time extension.3. Measurement of the flavor substances influenced by high F diet showed that:1) the IMF content of the breast muscle significantly decreased in high F groups (P<0.05or0.01) compared with the control.2) Compared with the control, the IMP content of the breast muscle significantly decreased in high F groups (P<0.05or0.01), mainly in the range of800-1200mg/kg F.3) The contents of stearic acid (C18:0), eicosanoic acid (C20:0), behenic acid (C22:0), myristoleic acid (C14:1), oleic acid (C18:1), a-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3), linoleic acid (LA), y-linolenic acid (y-ALA), and arachidonic acid (AA) were significantly higher (P<0.01) than those in the control group. In contrast, especially in these two groups, the contents of myristic acid (C14:0), palmitic acid (C16:0), lignoceric acid (C24:0), hexacosanoic acid (C26:0), palmitoleic acid (C16:1), erucic acid (C22:1), eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5n-3, EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6n-3, DHA) were significantly lower (P<0.01) than those in the control group.In conclusion, high F could induce large amount F accumulation in the breast muscle of broilers, and no obvious changes in indexes of meat colour, water holding capacity and tenderness at the same time, therefore these results would make it difficult to identify the high F meat and increase the damage of human health. Moreover, high F diet could strongly affect the meat quality and shelf-life by increasing the acidity of muscle, deepening the lipid peroxidation and damaging the flavor or nutrient substances.