The aim of this study was to test the effects of supplementing swine finishing diets with magnesium (Mg) and short duration transportation stress on blood parameters, pork quality and μ-calpain and calpastatin mRNA levels of muscle
of finishing pigs. It was found that short-duration transportation elicited the expected endocrine and blood metabolite responses to stress in pigs, and improved color and pH values of pork, but reduced tenderness of meat, which may be related to increase of mRNA level of calpastatin in pigs subjected to transportation. Supplementation of magnesium aspartate (MgAsp) improved pork color, and had a trend to ameliorate tenderness impaired by the transportation stress, which may be partly due to a trend to increase mRNA level of μ-calpain with supplementation of MgAsp. However, the functional mechanism of MgAsp on pork quality needs further investigation.

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