title: The effect of olive leaves supplementation on the feed digestibility, growth performances of pigs and quality of pork meat.
abstract: The influence of olive leaves supplementation on feed digestibility, growth performance of pigs and pork meat quality was investigated. Pigs fed diets with olive leaves at 5% (OL5) and 10% (OL10) levels had lower daily weight gain (DG) and daily feed intake (DFI) than pigs fed a conventional diet (OL0) but differences were not observed between groups fed with the different quantities of leaves. Additionally, pigs fed diets with leaves had the worst feed:gain ratio and showed a decrease in overall backfat. Chops from pigs fed the leaf diets had lower peroxide (PV) and conjugated diene (CD) contents than chops from pigs fed conventional diets. Moreover, chops from pigs fed with the higher quantity of leaves also showed a lower drip loss. After a storage period of 8 days at 4°C, meat obtained from both OL5 and OL10 animals also differed (P<0.05) in PV and %CD values from those fed a conventional diet. Since the fatty acid composition of the longissimus muscles was not different, differences in oxidative stability could only be explained by the significantly higher α-tocopherol concentration in intramuscular fat and backfat in pigs fed with olive leaf diets.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigação em Química, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, n° 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal; Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, n° 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Fátima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Paiva-Martins
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barbosa
authors.forename: Vítor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pinheiro
authors.forename: José Luís
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Mourão
authors.forename: Divanildo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Outor-Monteiro