Abstract:

Objective: To investigate the effect of beef supplementation on body weight and sport performance of mice. Methods: Fifty male mice were randomly divided into two groups: control group (n = 20) and beef group (n = 30), with each mouse in separate cages. During the first four weeks, the intake of mice were limited to 6.0 g/d. Exhaustion time of exercise, holding power, body weight were measured before mice were immediately slaughtered and the tissues of liver and hind leg muscle were sampled. Results: Body weight gain in beef group tended to decline compared with control while exhaustion time of swimming and holding power tended to increase (P＞ 0.05). For beef group, liver glycogen, muscle glycogen, and serum SOD in mice increased (P＜0.05) while the serum MDA level was reduced (P＜0.05) with or without extra load. Conclusion: Under the same dietary protein and energy intakes, the ration with beef included enables mice to have a stable body weight and increase holding power and exhaustion time of swimming, as well as to increase glycogen levels in liver and muscle tissue and significantly improve the animal s antioxidant capacity no matter whether there was additional load to mice.

Key words: mouse, beef, body weight, sport performance, holding power, muscle glycogen, liver glycogen