The Effects of Dietary Inclusion of Mulberry Leaf Powder on Growth Performance, Carcass Traits and Meat Quality of Tibetan Pigs

Abstract

This research was conducted to study the effects of dietary inclusion of mulberry leaf powder (MLP) on growth performance, meat quality, antioxidant activity, and carcass traits of Tibetan pigs. Eighteen Tibetan pigs (33.8 ± 1.1 kg) were assigned to two treatment groups randomly and received either the control diet (CON) or a basal diet containing 8% MLP (MLP) for two months. After the two-month feeding trial, the MLP group showed lower backfat thickness while a higher lean percentage. Compared with CON pigs, MLP pigs had higher serum CAT activity. In addition, dietary MLP supplementation significantly decreased the muscle shear force. Muscle fiber morphology analysis showed that MLP pigs had larger muscle fiber density while smaller muscle fiber cross-sectional area. Up-regulated gene expression of myosin heavy chain (MyHC)IIa was also observed in MLP pigs. These results indicate that the enhanced antioxidant activity and altered muscle fiber type and morphology appeared to contribute to the improvement of meat quality in Tibetan pigs fed diets containing MLP.

Effects of Dietary Supplementation with Mulberry Leaf Powder on the Growth Performance, Lipid Metabolism Parameters, Immunity Indicators, and Gut Microbiota of Dogs

“…MLP has been recognized as a traditional Chinese medicine that could decrease fat deposition and improve health status. Previously, we have shown that dietary MLP could decrease backfat thickness and improve the lean percentage of pigs [ 17 ]. The case of whether dietary MLP could improve lipid metabolism and bring other beneficial outcomes in dogs is worthy of further research.…”

“…Given the importance of dietary regulation in maintaining dogs’ health and preventing obesity, an increasing number of recent studies focused on investigating the effects of plant-derived bioactive components on dogs’ health. In recent years, mulberry leaves have been used in agricultural animals and have been shown to play important roles in regulating lipid metabolism, antioxidative capacity, immune function, and muscle development [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. The existing body of research on mulberry leaf demonstrates that mulberry leaf exhibits a variety of biological activities, including antioxidant [ 20 , 21 , 22 ], anticancer [ 23 ], anti-obesity [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], anti-inflammation [ 26 , 27 , 28 ], and antibacterial [ 29 ] effects.…”

Productive Performance, Physiological Variables, and Carcass Quality of Finishing Pigs Supplemented with Ferulic Acid and Grape Pomace Subjected to Heat Stress Conditions

“…Also, as previously mentioned, these PCs may regulate the transition of muscle fibers and thus explain the trend obtained in loin area. Even, Zeng et al [49] suggest that mulberry leaves (flavonoids) may have a nutrient partitioning effect, and modify the proportion of type II a muscle fiber in finishing pigs [50] In this context, the GPM evaluated also contain compounds that could exert this modulatory effect in finishing pigs; however, future research should be conducted to corroborate this assumption and will also be corroborated by evaluating the fatty acid profile of meat supplemented with GPM or FA.…”

Effects of dietary mulberry leaves on growth, production performance, gut microbiota, and immunological parameters in poultry and livestock: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Additionally, no new eligible studies were identified by reviewing the reference lists of relevant articles. Finally, a total of 18 studies were included in the meta-analysis [11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] (Figure 1).…”

“…Several studies have investigated the effects of a mulberry leaf diet on various poultry and livestock, however, their results have been inconsistent [11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Moreover, no systematic review has yet summarized the effects of mulberry leaves on the growth, production performance, gut microbiota, and immunological parameters of poultry and livestock.…”