Abstract
We studied effects of endurance exercise on intramuscular collagen characteristics for various muscles of goats. Six male (from 12 to 15 months of age) and 4 castrated (from 24 to 33 months of age) goats were used. Goats were assigned to one of two treatment groups. Treatment was 2 level of exercise (sedentary and exercised) . The sedentary group (CONT) received no exercise. The exercised group (EXER) received exercise at a speed of 3.0 km/h for 60 min, 3 days per week. All goats were slaughtered at week 9. The samples of longissimus dorsi (LD), psoas major (PM), biceps femoris (BF), gastrocnemius (MG) and soleus (MS) muscles were obtained. Average daily weight gain was similar for both groups. Chemical compositions in the muscles were not affected by the treatments, except protein content in BF. MS in the EXER goats had higher (p<0.05) total and insoluble collagen contents compared with that in the CONT goats, but in the other muscles, collagen characteristics were not significantly modified by the treatment. The differences of total and insoluble collagen contents in MS were observed only in adult castrated goats significantly (p<0.05), but not in MS of young male goats. There was no effect of the exercise treatment on shear force values of LD and BF muscles. In the present study, exercise did not affect the meat tenderness in LD and BF muscle. Only in MS of adult castrated goats from 24 to 33 months of age, the exercise increased in both total and insoluble collagen content without any change in collagen solubility. These results indicate that endurance exercise could effects intramuscular collagen characteristics in goats, and the effects seemed to depend on types of muscles and age of animal.
