Effects of modified tall oil and creatine monohydrate on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of growing-finishing pigs

The effects of feeding modified tall oil (MTO) and creatine monohydrate (CM H) on growing-finishing pig growth performance, carcass characteristics, an d meat quality were determined. Eighty crossbred barrows (initially 45.4 kg ) were allotted randomly to one of four dietary treatments by weight and an cestry. The experiment was arranged as a 2 x 2 factorial with two levels of MTO (0 or 0.50%), which were fed throughout the growing-finishing period, and two levels of CMH (0 or 25 g/d), which were fed for the final 10 d befo re slaughter. The corn-soybean meal diets were fed in two phases (45.4 to 7 8.9 kg and 78.9 to 117.5 kg BW). When CMH was added to the diet in place of corn, average BW was 107.5 kg. Feeding MTO increased (P < 0.05) ADG and ga in:feed ratio (G/F) during the 45.4- to 78.9-kg growth interval and tended to improve (P = 0.10) G/F during the 45.4- to 107.5-kg growth interval. Die tary treatment did not affect (P > 0.15) growth performance during the 78.9 - to 107.5-kg growth interval. Modified tall oil increased (P = 0.02) G/F d uring the 10-d CMH supplementation period, and CMH numerically (P = 0.11) i ncreased ADG and G/F. Supplementation of CMH did not affect (P > 0.20) any measured carcass characteristic or measures of meat quality at 24 h or 14 d postmortem. Feeding MTO reduced average backfat (P = 0.05) and 10th rib ba ckfat (P = 0.01) but did not affect (P > 0.10) other measured carcass chara cteristics or measures of meat quality at 24 h postmortem. Modified tall oi l increased (P = 0.02) L* values (lightness) and tended to increase (P < 0. 10) thawing and cooking losses of longissimus muscle chops at 14 d postmort em. These data demonstrate that MTO improves growth performance and reduces backfat in growing-finishing pigs, but supplementation of CMH, under the c onditions of this experiment, was not beneficial for growing-finishing pigs .