Pasture-finishing of bison improves animal metabolic health and potential health-promoting compounds in meat.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Level 5 by design analogy (controlled animal study with no human clinical data)
PubMed 37004100 · doi:10.1186/s40104-023-00843-2
What was done
Investigators evaluated the metabolic, lipidomic, and fatty acid profiles of striploin muscle (M. longissimus lumborum) from North American bison subjected to two different 146-day finishing systems: pasture-finished or pen-finished on concentrate feed (n = 20 animals per group; total n = 40). A total of 1,570 individual compounds were profiled and compared across groups.
What was found
A total of 671 out of 1,570 compounds (43%) differed significantly between finishing systems (P < 0.05). Compared with pasture-finished bison, pen-finished muscle had higher levels of glucose metabolites (~1.6-fold), triglycerides (~2-fold), oxidative stress markers (~1.5-fold), and proteolysis markers (~1.2-fold). Pasture-finished meat contained higher Krebs cycle metabolites (~1.3-fold), long-chain acyl carnitines (~3-fold), phenolics (~2.3-fold), alpha-tocopherol (~5.8-fold), carotenes (~2.0-fold), and very long-chain fatty acids (~1.3-fold), with lower levels of the advanced lipoxidation end-product 4-hydroxy-nonenal-glutathione (~2-fold) and the advanced glycation end-product N6-carboxymethyllysine (~1.7-fold) (all P < 0.05). Pen-finished meat had ~2.5-fold higher levels of vitamins B5, B6, C, gamma/beta-tocopherol, and three alfalfa-derived phenolics (P < 0.05). Meat from both finishing systems maintained omega-6 to omega-3 ratios below 3.2.
Why it matters
This study provides deep metabolomic characterization showing that pasture finishing enhances specific antioxidant, carnitine, and mitochondrial metabolic profiles while reducing glycation and lipoxidation markers in bison meat compared to feedlot finishing.
Limits
The study was conducted entirely on animal muscle tissue with a modest sample size (n = 20 per group) and did not measure human metabolic or clinical outcomes. Specific botanical intake during pasture grazing was not individually standardized.
Cited by
- supports Stephan van Vliet's metabolomic studies showed that the meat of fully regeneratively pasture-fed bison contains different metabolites, phytochemicals, and fatty acids compared to grain-finished bison.