Endurance-exercised growing sheep: II. Tenderness increase and change in meat quality

A study was conducted to examine the effect, in ram lambs, of chronic treadmill exercise, on meat quality. A secondary objective was to relate changes in tenderness to metabolic and chemical phonomena. Meat quality traits, including instrumental measurements of tenderness and thaw and drip losses, were recorded for two muscles from the hind limb (semimembranosus SM; vastus lateralis, VL). Chemical analyses, including total and soluble collagen, total and myofibrillar protein, and myofibrillar fragmentation were also performed. Muscles from exercised sheep were significantly more tender than muscles from their control counterparts. A larger myofibrillar protein to total collagen ratio was observed in the VL muscles from exercised sheep (P < 0·01) which probably contributed to the observed increase in tenderness. However, similar results were not observed for the SM muscle. The tendency for a slightly higher pH at similar post-mortem temperatures in meat from exercised sheep may also have contributed to the increased tenderness.