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Changes in Color and Pigment Content of Skeletal Muscles of Veal Calves Due to Age, and to Iron and Desferrioxamine Supplementation When Measured by Biopsy Technique^{1, 2, 3,}

Université Laval, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

Twenty-four grade Holstein male calves were used to study the effects of iron, desferri-oxamine and age on the color characteristics and pigment content of the vastus lateralis sampled by biopsy technique.

Dietary iron and desferrioxamine had no effect on either the hemoglobin or the myoglobin content of this muscle. The changes in pigment concentration were influenced more by age than by experimental treatments. The muscular tissue of calves supplemented with iron was darker than that of controls, but desferrioxamine had no effect.

The changes in color characteristics, as measured in this experiment, seemed to be independent of the hemoglobin and/or the myoglobin concentration expressed as milligram per gram of fresh tissue.Other factors were apparently more important; perhaps the hemoglobin concentration of the circulating blood at the time of the biopsy.

The brightness ("Rd") and yellowness ("b") appeared to decrease from the age of 15 to 45 days and then increase between the age of 45 to 60 days. The redness ("da"), on the contrary, decreased regularly from 15 to 60 days.

¹ Contribution No. 33, Faculty of Agriculture.

² This work was made possible through a grant from the Quebec Agricultural Research Council, Quebec Department of Agriculture and Colonization.

³ The authors wish to express their appreciation to Dr. J. P. Pare for his advice concerning the statistical analyses.

⁴ Data taken from a thesis submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Science degree.

⁵ Present address: Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850.