Tropical grass and legume pastures may alter lamb meat physical and chemical characteristics

The present study assessed the influence of the type of the tropical pastures on lamb body weight (BW) gain and meat quality. Fifty-four lambs were allocated to three grazing pastures: (1) AG - Aruana grass (Panicum maximum cv. IZ-5); (2) PP - pigeon pea legume (Cajanus cajan cv. Anão); and (3) CS - contiguous swards, half of the paddock with AG and half with PP. After 92 days of grazing, the lambs were slaughtered. Carcasses were evaluated and the longissimus muscle was collected to determine color, lipid profile, tocopherol concentrations, and lipid oxidation. Although the pastures present differences in the characteristics of nutritional quality, the animals did not show difference in BW gain. The results show that all forage presented similar concentration of alpha-tocopherol (137 ± 14.37 mg kg^-1 of fresh matter), whereas total and condensed tannin contents were greater in PP, intermediate in CS, and the lowest in AG treatment (P = 0.0001). Meat α-tocopherol content was similar among treatments (P = 0.1392), with an average concentration close to the optimal level to reduce the meat oxidation. Meat from AG treatment had 45 and 25% lower n-6/n-3 ratio than meat from PP and CS treatments, respectively. The legume increases the unsaturated fatty acids and the grass can reduce the n6/n3 ratio. The level of condensed tannin concentration did show to have important effect on meat characteristics. Both tropical pastures studied can provide a high amount of alpha-tocopherol, generating a great potential to increase the concentration of this antioxidant in lamb's meat.