title: The use of vitamin D3 to improve beef tenderness.
abstract: An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that short-term oral administration of dietary vitamin D3 to beef cattle before slaughter would increase beef tenderness through greater calcium-activated calpain activity in postmortem aged skeletal muscle. Thirty continental crossbred steers were allotted randomly to three treatment groups housed in one pen. One group served as a control; two other groups were administered boluses with either 5 x 10(6) or 7.5 x 10(6) IU of vitamin D3 daily for 9 d. Cattle were slaughtered 1 d later. The longissimus lumborum was excised from each carcass 72 h postmortem and steaks removed at 3, 7, 14, and 21 d postmortem. The semimembranosus muscle (top round) was excised from each carcass 72 h postmortem and steaks removed at 7, 14, and 21 d postmortem. Blood plasma calcium concentration of cattle treated with 5 or 7.5 x 10(6) IU of vitamin D3 was higher (P < .05) than that of controls. Strip loin and top loin steaks from cattle fed supplemental doses of vitamin D3 had lower (P < .05) Warner-Bratzler (W-B) shear values at 14 d postmortem but were not significantly different from controls at 3, 7, or 21 d (strip loins) or 7 or 21 d (top rounds). No significant difference in strip loin steak tenderness was observed by sensory panel at 14 d postmortem (P < .17) between steaks from control and vitamin D3-treated steers. At 14 d postmortem, strip loin and top round steaks from cattle fed 5 x 10(6) IU of vitamin D3, but not from those given 7.5 x 10(6) IU, showed more proteolysis (P < .05) than did steaks from control cattle, based on Western blotting analysis. Therefore, the use of supplemental dietary vitamin D3 given daily for 9 d before slaughter did improve tenderness (lower W-B shear values) of 14-d postmortem aged beef. Increased proteolysis seems to be the mechanism of tenderization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames 50011, USA.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Parrish
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Beitz
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Horst
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Huff-Lonergan
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Trenkle
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism; D002154:Calpain / Q000378:metabolism; D002417:Cattle; D002762:Cholecalciferol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008460:Meat / Q000592:standards*; D009132:Muscles / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002762:Cholecalciferol; D002154:Calpain; D002118:Calcium