Effects of Bergamot ( Citrus bergamia Risso) By-Product on Growth Performance and Meat Quality of Growing Rabbits

• Published in: Foods Vol. 13; no. 16; p. 2611
• Main Authors: Scerra, Manuel, Foti, Francesco, Caparra, Pasquale, Bognanno, Matteo, Fortugno, Paolo, Autolitano, Domenico, Viglianti, Domenico, Bella, Marco Sebastiano, Cannone, Marco Sebastiano, Chies, Luigi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 20.08.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; antioxidant; Antioxidants; Bitter orange; Body weight; By-products; Cereals; Citrus fruits; Cold storage; Control stability; Diet; Eicosapentaenoic acid; Experiments; fatty acid composition; Fatty acids; Feeds; Food and nutrition; Food research; Food wastes; Group dynamics; Health aspects; Linolenic acid; Meat; Meat quality; Oxidation; oxidative stability; phenols; Physiological aspects; Protein composition; Proteins; Pulp; Quality; Rabbits; shelf-life; Italy; United States > US; phenols; antioxidant; shelf-life; fatty acid composition; oxidative stability
• ISSN: 2304-8158; 2304-8158
• DOI: 10.3390/foods13162611

This study aimed to investigate the effects of feeding dried bergamot pulp to rabbits on animal performance and meat quality. Thirty rabbits were assigned to two groups (balanced for body weight, 804.4 ± 2.35 g) and fed individually for 60 days a basal diet (control) or the basal diet in which part of the cereals was replaced with 10% of dried bergamot pulp (DBP). There were no effects of DBP on growth performance, carcass yield, or the crude protein and ether extract composition of meat. The concentrations of α-linolenic acid (C18:3 n-3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5 n-3) increased in the muscle ( < 0.01 and = 0.021, respectively) after integrating dried bergamot pulp into the diet, leading to higher levels of total of ω-3 fatty acids ( < 0.01) compared to the control treatment. The inclusion of dried bergamot pulp improved the oxidative stability in meat ( < 0.001), where TBARS values were lower after 4 and 7 days of refrigerated storage ( < 0.001) in the DBP group than in the control group. Finally, feeding dried bergamot pulp to rabbits improves meat quality without negatively influencing growth performance.