Livestock Production Science 65 (2000) 197–201 www.elsevier.com / locate / livprodsci Short communication Effects of dietary vitamin E supplementation on performance and meat characteristics in fattening bulls from the Belgian Blue breed a b c d d d I. Dufrasne , C. Marche , A. Clinquart , J.L. Hornick , C. Van Eenaeme, , L. Istasse a Experimental Research Station B39, Veterinary Faculty University, B39, 4000 Liege, Belgium b ´ Haute Ecole de la Communaute Franc ¸aise ISI, 4500 Huy, Belgium c Department of Food Science ( Technology), Veterinary Faculty University B43, Liege, Belgium d Department of Nutrition, Veterinary Faculty University B43, Liege, Belgium Received 20 August 1998; received in revised form 5 May 1999; accepted 25 October 1999 Abstract An experiment was conducted to study effects of dietary vitamin E supplementation on animal performance, slaughter characteristics and meat quality traits in Belgian Blue double-muscled bulls. Two groups of six bulls each were offered (close to ad libitum) a fattening diet based on sugar beet pulp for 154 days, at which time they were slaughtered. The diet given to the control group (CG) contained 12.5 mg vitamin E / kg concentrate. The vitamin E-treated group (VG) received the same concentrate plus a supplement of 1000 mg vitamin E per bull daily. Steaks from m. longissimus thoracis were used to determine meat quality characteristics, alpha tocopherol concentration and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances content (TBARS), an indicator of oxidation rancidity. Supplementation had no influence on animal performance or carcass characteristics. The main findings were that vitamin E doubled the muscle alpha tocopherol level (1.9 vs. 0.9 mg / kg; P , 0.001), lipid oxidation was suppressed as indicated by TBARS values ( P , 0.01 at days 7, 9, 11 and 14 after slaughter), but muscle colour was not significantly affected although a* (redness) tended to be higher for VG.  2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Belgian Blue bulls; Colour; Meat; Oxidation; Vitamin E 1. Introduction discolouration of the surface can be interpreted by consumers as a condition of unwholesomeness Usually, meat is purchased by the consumer after (Faustman et al., 1989). Discolouration in retail being exposed for a variable period of time in a meats during display is due to muscle pigment and display area. In such conditions, changes may occur lipid oxidation in intramuscular fat and membrane both in colour and flavour characteristics. Visual phospholipids (Sherbeck et al., 1995). Changes in appearance of fresh meat is important because flavour are related to oxidative rancidity mainly when the unsaturated fatty acids content of the meat E-mail address: isabelle.dufrasne@ulg.ac.be (I. Dufrasne) is high (Lin et al., 1989; Shahidi, 1992). 0301-6226 / 00 / $ – see front matter  2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0301-6226(99)00173-6