INFLUENCE OF WHOLE MILK IN DIET OF GROWING FATTENING BELGIAN BLUE BULLS ON ANIMAL PERFORMANCES AND ON FATTY-ACID COMPOSITION IN SUBCUTANEOUS, INTERMUSCULAR AND INTRAMUSCULAR FATS

Influence of milk in diet of growing fattening Belgian Blue bulls on a nimal performances and on fatty acid composition in subcutaneous, inte rmuscular and intramuscular fats. The use of milk as component of a fa ttening diet for bulls was studied in an experiment carried-out over 2 years with Belgian Blue bulls. The animals weighed 305 kg at the begi nning of the experiment. In all, 15 bulls were given a control concent rate fattening diet (control group, CG), while 11 others were fed conc entrate plus 6.5 to 111 whole milk per day according to weight or age (milk group, MG). The fattening period lasted for 174 and 181 d respec tively in groups CG and MG. The MG-group had a higher killing-out perc entage (P < 0.01) and the meat was characterized by a lower b value a nd a lower dry matter content(P < 0.1). Whole milk in the diet increas ed the proportion of shorter chain and saturated fatty acids in fat (P < 0.001) and reduced the proportion of mono- and polyunsaturated acid s (P < 0.05; P < 0.1). The extent of the changes were larger in subcut aneous and intermuscular fats than in intramuscular fat. (C) 1997 Else vier Science B.V.