Effect of glutathione on growth performance,carcass traits and meat quality in sheep

The effects of glutathione on growth performance,carcass traits and meat quality of meat sheep had been studied in this paper.Twelve F1 crossbred of German Mutton Merino Sheep with Northeast Fine-wool Sheep were chosen in the current experiment,and the animals were divided into 3 groups: control,treatmentⅠ and Ⅱ,with 4 replicates in each treatment.Animals were fed for 60 days.The results indicated that: compared with the control,the average daily gain increased in treatmentⅠand Ⅱ(P0.05)by 14.6% and 11.4%,and feed to gain rate decreased by 11.0% and 8.1%,respectively(P0.05);there were higher net meat rate and GR value in treatmentⅠ(P0.05)and live body weight in treatmentⅡ(P0.05);and shear stress of treatmentⅠ,drip loss of treatmentⅠand Ⅱdecreased significantly(P0.05).There was no significant difference in cooking rate between treatmentⅠand treatment Ⅱ(P0.05),but significant increase in these two treatments compared with control(P0.05).There were no significant differences in meat pH at 45-min post-slaughter among three groups(P0.05),but significant increase in meat pH at 24-h poat-slaughter in treatmentⅠcompared with the control(P0.01).