Table 5.

Effect of dietary butyrate supplementation on meat quality of finishing pigs¹

Items	Control	`Butyrate2	SEM	P
Drip loss, %	2.34	2.13	0.05	0.13
Cooking loss, %	34.04	33.31	0.26	0.35
Shear force, kg of force/cm2	5.49a	4.26b	0.14	<0.05
Marbling score	1.25b	2.00a	0.09	<0.05
IMF content,3 %	2.32b	2.59a	0.06	<0.05
pH45 min	6.54	6.63	0.02	0.25
pH24 h	5.58b	5.65a	0.01	<0.05
L*	59.36a	56.73b	0.42	<0.05
a*	8.40	8.22	0.21	0.77
b*	1.20	1.24	0.06	0.83

^a,bWithin a row, means with different superscript letters are significantly different (P < 0.05).

¹All traits in this table were analyzed with pen as the experimental unit (n = 8).

²Butyrate = basal diet with 0.3% sodium butyrate.

³IMF = Intramuscular fat.