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

Yancan Wang; Qiye Wang; Chunpeng Dai; Jianzhong Li; Pengfei Huang; Yali Li; Xueqin Ding; Jing Huang; Tarique Hussain; Huansheng Yang

doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2020.05.008

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

Anim Nutr. 2020 Dec;6(4):499-506. doi: 10.1016/j.aninu.2020.05.008. Epub 2020 Oct 10.

Authors

Yancan Wang¹, Qiye Wang^{1

2}, Chunpeng Dai², Jianzhong Li¹, Pengfei Huang¹, Yali Li¹, Xueqin Ding¹, Jing Huang¹, Tarique Hussain³, Huansheng Yang^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Hunan International Joint Laboratory of Animal Intestinal Ecology and Health, Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Human Health, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China.
² Hubei Zhiqinghe Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd., Yichang, 443106, China.
³ Animal Sciences Division, Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Hunan Provincial Engineering Research Center of Healthy Livestock, Scientific Observing and Experimental Station of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in South-Central, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, 410125, China.

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.

Keywords: Energy level; Female Hu lambs; Growth performance; Meat quality.