Table 3.
Carcass characteristics of finishing steers fed a diet supplemented with antibiotics (ANT), active dried yeast (ADY), encapsulated ADY (EDY), or mixture of ADY and EDY (MDY)
| Treatments1 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Control | ANT | ADY | EDY | MDY | SEM | P < |
| HCW, kg | 369 | 366 | 373 | 368 | 369 | 6.62 | 0.96 |
| Dressing, % | 58.9 | 58.7 | 59.4 | 59.1 | 58.9 | 0.33 | 0.66 |
| BFT, mm | 19.2 | 20.1 | 18.9 | 18.2 | 19.0 | 1.23 | 0.87 |
| LM area, cm2 | 86.1 | 82.7 | 88.9 | 87.3 | 86.7 | 1.88 | 0.20 |
| Marbling score2 | 6.13 | 6.08 | 6.13 | 6.07 | 5.71 | 0.20 | 0.52 |
| Saleable meat yield3, % | 51.9 | 50.7 | 52.7 | 52.9 | 52.1 | 1.09 | 0.63 |
| Quality grade | |||||||
| AAA4, % | 100a | 86.7b | 100a | 100a | 100a | … | 0.01 |
| Liver score, % | |||||||
| Abscessed livers5, % | 46.7 | 60.0 | 60.0 | 46.7 | 53.3 | … | 0.75 |
| Severely abscessed6, % | 26.7a | 26.7a | 6.7b | 20.0a | 6.7b | … | 0.05 |
BFT, back fat thickness
a,bLeast square means within a row with different superscripts differ (P < 0.05).
1Control = no yeast and no antibiotics; ANT (330 mg monensin + 110 mg tylosin·steer−1d−1); ADY (1.5 g ADY·steer−1d−1); EDY (3 g·steer−1d−1; EDY consisted of 1.5 g ADY and 1.5 g capsule material); and MDY (1.5 g ADY + 3.0 g EDY·steer−1d−1).
2According to pictorial standards (from 1 = devoid to 10 = abundant marbling; USDA, 1989);
3Estimated lean yield = 57.96 − 0.027 HCW + 0.202 LM area − 0.703 BFT; BFT = 12th-rib back fat thickness.
4Canada grade AAA = equivalent to USDA choice.
5The percentage of liver with at least 1 abscess.
6The percentage of liver with at least 4 small abscesses or at least 1 abscess with a diameter greater than 2.5 cm.