Table 4. Chemical composition and meat quality (m. longissimus lumborum et thoracis) of control (group C) and supplemented
(group Sel) pigs
Table 4. Dietary Se supplementation did not influence the total protein level in MLLT. There was a
tendency of lowering intramuscular fat percentage
in pigs supplemented with additional selenium
(P > 0.05). The results of Mahan et al. (1999) and ours
indicated that the m. longissimus lumborum et thoracis
pH (45 min, 24 h) did not seem to be affected by
the dietary Se levels and only a tendency of higher
pH (45 min) was observed in our experiment (P >
0.05). The differences in colour (reflectance %) and
conductivity values measured 24 h post mortem were
also insignificant (P > 0.05), which is in agreement
with the results reported by Krska et al. (2001) where
colour stability (MLLT, 7 day storage) was unaffected by the administration of higher levels of vitamin
E and Se. Drip loss of MLLT during the 48 h measurementperiod tended to be lower when the higher
level Se was fed. Mahan et al. (1999) reported that
the drip loss from the loin tissue of pigs receiving
additional Se (0.3 mg/kg) was similar to that of the
pigs fed on the basal diet (0.1 mg Se/kg), but pigs fed
on inorganic Se tended to have a higher water loss
from the loin tissue than those fed on the organic
Se source. Recently Downs et al. (2000) showed the
low drip loss of chicken breast fillets (m. pectoralis
major) reduced approximately by 17% when organic
selenium replaced sodium selenite in broiler diets to
supply between 0.1 and 0.3 ppm Se. Spallholz (1994)
reported in a review that selenite was more toxic in
animal tissue than selenomethionine, and that the
inorganic form could possess prooxidant properties The differences in myofibrillar fragmentation index (MFI) were not significant (P > 0.05) and the
results did not indicate a high influence on muscle
aging (5 days) by the higher level of dietary Se. The
discrepancy found in the literature regarding the
meat quality values (mainly drip loss, pH 45 min)
could also be a consequence of different levels of
Se administration and/or the unknown halothane
(malignant hyperthermia) gene status of pigs in
some studies. In our studies experimental pigs were
defined on the MH gene status and equal numbers
of homozygotes and heterozygotes were used in
the experiment.
The results showed that additional administration of organically bound Se (0.3 mg Se/kg feed for
97 days) to basal diet (0.18 mg Se/kg) significantly
(P < 0.05) improved the amount of Se and antioxidative capacity in muscle tissues of pigs and positively
influenced meat quality values to some extent.