Abstract:

Laiwu (n=24), Lulai Black (n=24) and Yorkshire (n=12) castrated boars were used to analyze the changes of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) level in postmortem muscle and their association with meat quality. The results showed as follows: ① As storage prolonging, SOD activity in postmortem muscle tended to decrease, but MDA level tended to increase. The breeds had significant effects on SOD and MDA (P<0.01), except for MDA5 d (P>0.05). For different pig breeds, the order of SOD activity was Laiwu > Lulai Black> Yorkshire, but MDA level was Laiwu <Lulai Black< Yorkshire. ② For meat quality, different breeds had significant effects on meat color, drip loss, water holding percentage, cooking loss, intramuscular fat (IMF), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (P<0.01). Compared with Yorkshire, Laiwu and Lulai Black pigs were bright red in meat color, higher in water holding capacity (WBC) and content of IMF, but lower in content of PUFA. ③ SOD activity and MDA level in postmortem muscle, to some extent, were highly correlated to WBC, meat color and shear force. It proved that the muscle with higher SOD activity and the lower MDA level had the better meat color, WBC and tenderness. It implied that SOD decided the characters of meat quality by quenching oxygen free radicals and inhibiting lipid oxidation in muscle.