Effects of dietary energy on growth performance, carcass characteristics, serum biochemical index, and meat quality of female Hu lambs

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of dietary energy levels on growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality, and serum biochemical of female Hu lambs. Seventy female Hu lambs (aged 4 months) were randomly allotted to 5 dietary treatments. Lambs were fed diets with 5 levels of metabolizable energy (ME): 9.17 (E1), 9.59 (E2), 10.00 (E3), 10.41 (E4), and 10.82 MJ/kg (E5). The lambs were adapted to the experimental diets for 10 d and the experiment period lasted for 60 d. Dry matter intake and feed conversion ratio linearly ( P < 0.001) increased and decreased ( P < 0.001), respectively, with increasing dietary ME levels. Average daily gain (ADG) linearly ( P < 0.001) increased with increasing dietary ME levels, with the highest final body weight ( P = 0.041) observed in E4 group. Moreover, dietary energy level was associated with linear increases in serum total protein (TP) ( P < 0.001), albumin (ALB) ( P = 0.017), glucose (GLU) ( P = 0.004), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC) ( P = 0.006) concentrations, and it was associated with a quadratic decrease in serum triglyceride (TG) concentration ( P = 0.002). Serum ammonia concentration, which was firstly decreased and then increased, was quadratically affected by dietary ME levels ( P = 0.013). Compared with E1 group, lambs in E4 group had higher ( P < 0.05) live weights, carcass weights, mesenteric fat ratio, non-carcass fat ratio, and larger loin muscle area, but lower ( P < 0.05) meat colour a∗ and b∗ values, and lesser ( P < 0.05) C17:0, C20:0, C18:1n-9t, C18:3n-3, and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), but greater ( P < 0.05) C18:3n-6 and n-6:n-3 ratios in longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle tissue, and lesser ( P < 0.05) C17:0, C18:3n-3, C22:6n-3, and n-3 PUFA in the biceps femoris (BF) muscle tissue. The results demonstrated that increasing dietary energy level improved the growth performance and affected carcass traits, serum biochemical indexes, and fatty acid profiles in different muscles of female Hu lambs. For 4-month-old female Hu lambs, the recommended fattening energy level is 10.41 MJ/kg.

Effect of dietary folic acid and energy density on immune response, gut morphology, and oxidative status in blood and breast muscle of broiler chickens

“…The increased plasma albumin concentration can be explained by the rapid production and utilization of albumin for the synthesis of tissue proteins in the chickens consuming HE diets. Our result is in agreement with a previous study by Wang et al (2020), who found that increasing dietary energy was associated with a linear increase in serum albumin in lambs. Albumin has been recognized as one of the essential proteins, majorly known for activities associated with protein synthesis, substrate transport, toxin neutralization, and colloidal osmotic pressure (Levitt and Levitt 2016) during the growth and development process.…”

“…A recent study by Wang et al (2020) revealed that dietary FA significantly increased villus height, villus height:crypt depth, and villus surface area in the jejunal mucosa of weaned piglets. Munyaka (2012; 2013) reported that FA modulated immune responses in young laying hens subjected to acute immunological challenge.…”

Effects of Phragmites australis Shoot Remainder Silage on Growth Performance, Blood Biochemical Parameters, and Rumen Microbiota of Beef Cattle

“…The PICRUSt prediction results showed that amino acid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, replication and repair, membrane transport, translation, and energy metabolism were the dominant gene families at KEGG level 2, all of which are essential for survival, growth, and reproduction of gastrointestinal microbes (44). These results were similar to our previous studies in sheep (11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Among these gene families, unexpectedly, the genes associated with metabolism of cofactors and vitamins, cellular processes and signaling, metabolism, biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites, infectious diseases, signaling molecules and interaction, nervous system, and digestive system were significantly higher in the PSR silage diet than in the mixed and corn silage diets, while lipid metabolism was dramatically lower in the PSR silage diet than in the corn silage diet.…”

“…In the current study, the concentration of GLU in the mixed group was significantly lower than in the PSR silage and corn silage treatments, while the higher ADG was observed in the mixed group. These results were inconsistent with previous studies, and this might be related to species and feed composition (11)(12)(13)(14)(15). The concentration of BUN is perceived as an effective indicator to measure the metabolism of protein and amino acid, low BUN level indicates high nitrogen metabolism capacity (21).…”

“…After standing for 2-3 h, blood samples were centrifuged by the model TG16-WS H1650 centrifuges (Hunan Xiangyi Laboratory Instrument Development Co. Ltd.) at 3,000 r/min for 10 min, and then the supernatant was separated and stored at −20 • C for further analysis. A TBA-120FR automatic biochemistry analyzer (Toshiba Corporation) was used to measure the concentrations of serum biochemical parameters (11)(12)(13).…”