Effects of nutrition in lambs and subsequent postmortem biochemical changes in muscle

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Abstract
The effects on postmortem muscle biochemistry of feeding regimes, resulting in weight gain, weight maintenance and weight loss, were investigated on 1 group of lambs and the effects of short-term starvation and water deprivation for 67 h were investigated on another group of lambs. There were no significant differences in the initial or ultimate pH, glycogen, lactate or ATP among the 3 groups on different planes of nutrition. The most obvious effect of electrical stimulation was the initial fall in pH and the increased subsequent rate of pH fall. On electrical stimulation the lactate level increased by 20 .mu.mol/g, the glycogen levels decreased by 10 .mu.mol/g and the ATP levels decreased by 2 .mu.mol/g. There was no significant difference in ultimate muscle metabolites between stimulated or unstimulated values. Short-term fasting did not change the overall initial or ultimate values of pH, glycogen, lactate or ATP. Although there was a decrease in ruminoreticulum contents the fluidity increased in the starved lambs. The plane of nutrition and short-term fasting appeared to have little effect on the compounds bearing some relationships to meat quality. The main effect of fasting was to increase the fluidity of stomach contents.