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Effects of dietary energy level on growth performance, blood parameters and meat quality in fattening male Hu lambs
Author(s) -
Wang Qiye,
Wang Yancan,
Hussain Tarique,
Dai Chunpeng,
Li Jianzhong,
Huang Pengfei,
Li Yali,
Ding Xueqin,
Huang Jing,
Ji Fengjie,
Zhou Hanlin,
Yang Huansheng
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.651
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1439-0396
pISSN - 0931-2439
DOI - 10.1111/jpn.13278
Subject(s) - zoology , dry matter , feed conversion ratio , longissimus dorsi , chemistry , medicine , endocrinology , body weight , biology
This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different dietary energy levels on growth performance, slaughter traits, meat quality and blood biochemical parameters in fattening male Hu lambs. Sixty lambs were fed five iso‐protein diets which contained different levels of metabolizable energy in a completely randomized design for 70 days. At the end of study, fifteen lambs were harvested for further study. With the increase in dietary energy level, the daily weight gain and dry matter intake extremely increased ( p < .001), and feed conversion ratio decreased significantly ( p < .01). The live weight before slaughter (LWBS) and carcass weight had a significant increase ( p < .05), non‐carcass fat ratio and routine indexes of meat quality had no significant difference. Almost no effect was observed for the amino acid profile except for glycine concentration decreased ( p < .05) in longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle. The concentrations of C17:0, C18:3n‐3 and n‐3 PUFA ( p < .01) significantly decreased with the increasing dietary energy levels, and the ratio of ∑n‐6/∑n‐3 ( p < .01) increased, whereas the concentrations of C18:1n‐9t ( p < .05) decreased in LD muscle and C18:1 ( p < .01) increased in biceps femoris (BF) muscle. There were no obviously differences for diameter, area and density of muscle fibres. The relative expression of MyHC‐IIa and MyHC‐IIx decreased significantly ( p < .05) in BF muscle, and the relative expression of MyHC‐IIa displayed an obviously decreasing trend ( p < .10) in LD muscle. These results suggest that increasing the dietary energy level can improve the growth performance and slaughter traits, and influence meat quality and fatty acid profiles in different muscle tissues of fattening male Hu lambs. These results provide a theoretical basis for developing Hu sheep nutritional standards and designing feed formulations.