Quality of lambs beef fed with tannin extract of Acacia mearnsii and essential oil of oregano

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the essential oil of oregano and tannin extract of Acacia mearnsii on the meat quality of lambs. The animals used will be 36 male sheep, uncastrated, from Dorper x Santa Inês crossing, weaned and initial weight of about 25 kg. The diet supply will adjusted every day during the trial period in order to provide daily remains approximately 10%.The experiment will last 50 days. The experimental design to be used will be completely randomized blocks. All treatments will consist of a standard diet, being different only in the additives used: treatment 1 - control diet; Treatment 2 - control diet with oregano essential oil (1 ml/kg of concentrate) and treatment 3 - control diet with tannin extract (5% of the diet DM). Samples for assessment of meat quality will be collected at slaughter and the variables to be analyzed will be: softness, color, cooking losses, pH and fat thickness, ribeye area.