The goal of the trial was to evaluate the effects of ractopamine (20 ppm in the ration) given pregnant sows during three different pregnancy stages (T1: 25 to 50 d; T2: 50 to 80 d; T3: 25 to 80 d of gestation, and T4: control-no ractopamine) on fetal muscle development (through counts of the number of fibers of the semitendinosus muscle), on the growth and carcass characteristics of the progeny...

Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved ractopamine hydrochloride and zilpaterol hydrochloride in animal feeds, usage of those compounds has been a topic of worldwide debate. Ractopamine and zilpaterol are β-adrenergic agonists used as veterinary drugs to increase weight gain in certain animals raised for food. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) establishe...

To determine ractopamine residues in animal food products (chicken muscle, pettitoes, pig muscle, and pig liver), we established a rapid direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a polyclonal antibody generated from ractopamine-linker-BSA. The antibody showed high sensitivity and specificity in phosphate buffer, with an IC(50) of 0.6 ng/mL, and the limit of detection wa...

Pigs (n = 240) were allotted in a 5 x 2 factorial arrangement with 5 levels of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS): 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60%, and 2 ractopamine (RAC) levels: 0 and 5 mg/kg. Four pigs per pen (2 barrows, 2 gilts) closest to pen mean BW were used for meat quality evaluation. Loins (n = 119) were evaluated for objective color; moisture and fat; subjective color, marbling, an...

• Ractopamine affects mitochondrial proteome in beef LL muscle. Proapoptotic protein and oxidative phosphorylation enzyme were less abundant after ractopamine supplementation. supplementation increased the abundance of fatty acid metabolic anti-apoptotic protein. Dietary causes a muscle fiber shift cattle, biochemistry mitochondria postmortem muscles is influenced by type. Nonetheless, influenc...

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of ractopamine, coenzyme Q and L-carnitine, 10 individually and in combination, on the hematological parameters of broiler chickens. A total of 512 one day-old male broiler chickens (Ross 308) were randomly divided to eight treatment groups. Each group had four replicates with 16 birds per each. Treatments were assigned as a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial ar...

β-agonists are anabolic compounds that promote fat loss and muscle gain, and their administration to livestock may provide economic benefits by increasing growth rate and feed efficiency. For these reasons, β-agonists are also commonly added to livestock feed as growth promoters. This can introduce a significant risk of secondary human poisoning through intake of contaminated meat. A new method...

This study was designed to evaluate growth performance, carcass cutting yield, and processing characteristics of boneless hams and bellies from finishing pigs fed diets containing 0, 5, 10, or 20 ppm of the phenethanolamine ractopamine hydrochloride (RAC). Sixty pigs were blocked by starting weight and randomly assigned to pens (four pigs/pen) within each of three blocks. Treatments were then r...