Effects of cimaterol on energetics and carcass characteristics of Suffolk ewe lambs

The effects of cimaterol, a beta agonist, on basal metabolic rate, heat increment, maintenance requirements and carcass characteristics were determined using six treated and six control Suffolk ewe lambs. The lambs were fed a pelleted diet (18.7% CP, 2.64 Mcal ME/kg) with or without .5 mg cimaterol/kg BW.75 daily for 70 d. Heat production was monitored for 2 d on each animal at three levels of intake by respiration calorimetry. A 7-d total collection digestion trial was conducted on each animal at both high and low levels of intake. Cimaterol-fed lambs gained more (P less than .05) weight (174 vs 107 g/d) and had a higher (P less than .01) gain/feed ratio (151 vs 90 g/kg) than controls. Cimaterol did not affect diet digestibility or methane production. It reduced (P less than .01) urinary N excretion by 12% and improved (P less than .001) N retention by 18%. Cimaterol also increased carcass weight (26.9 vs 22.1 kg), dressing percentage (57.2 vs 53.9), longissimus muscle area (22.5 vs 15.0 cm2) and leg score (14.3 vs 12.2). Heat production was, on the average, elevated 7 to 10% on d 1 to 4 of cimaterol feeding but reverted to control levels by d 10. Cimaterol did not have any long-term thermogenic effects, either expressed as partial efficiency of ME use for growth (.48 vs .49), as maintenance ME requirements (76 vs 75 kcal/kg BW.75) or as fasting heat production (84 vs 80 kcal/kg BW.75) for treated vs control lambs, respectively. Results indicate little long-term thermogenic effect of cimaterol, even though growth rate and protein deposition were increased.