Comparison of the meat quality and fatty acid profile of muscles in finishing Xiangcun Black pigs fed varied dietary energy levels

Can Yang; Wenlong Wang; Xiaowu Tang; Ruilin Huang; Fengna Li; Wenxuan Su; Yulong Yin; Chaoyue Wen; Jian Liu

doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2022.06.006

Comparison of the meat quality and fatty acid profile of muscles in finishing Xiangcun Black pigs fed varied dietary energy levels

Anim Nutr. 2022 Jun 18:11:15-24. doi: 10.1016/j.aninu.2022.06.006. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Authors

Can Yang^{1

2

3}, Wenlong Wang^{2

3}, Xiaowu Tang⁴, Ruilin Huang², Fengna Li², Wenxuan Su², Yulong Yin^{2

3}, Chaoyue Wen^{2

5}, Jian Liu⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Sciences and Environment, Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Biological Resources Protection and Utilization in Nanyue Mountain Area, Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang, Hunan 421008, China.
² Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, National Engineering Laboratory for Pollution Control and Waste Utilization in Livestock and Poultry Production, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Science, Changsha, Hunan 410125, China.
³ Hunan International Joint Laboratory of Animal Intestinal Ecology and Health, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410081, China.
⁴ College of Bioengineering, Hunan Vocational Technical College of Environment and Biology, Hengyang, Hunan 421005, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Animal Feed and Nutrition of Zhejiang Province, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
⁶ Xiangcun High-technology Agricultural Co. LTD, Loudi, Hunan 417000, China.

Abstract

To study the effects of dietary energy level on the meat quality of different muscles in finishing pigs, 400 Xiangcun Black pigs (BW = 79.55 ± 4.77 kg) were randomly assigned to 5 treatments with varied calculated digestive energy (DE) at 3,050, 3,100, 3,150, 3,200 and 3,250 kcal/kg, respectively. Each treatment had 8 replicates with 10 pigs per replicate. Meat quality, amino acid and fatty acid composition were tested in this study. No differences in average daily gain, average daily feed intake or feed-to-gain ratio (P > 0.05) were observed among dietary treatments. Glycogen concentrations of longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle in DE3150 was higher than those in other groups (P < 0.05). The crude fat concentration of biceps femoris (BF) muscle in DE3250 tended to be higher than that in DE3150 and DE3100 groups (P < 0.05). Pigs in DE3250 and DE3200 had higher fiber density and smaller cross-sectional area of BF muscle than those in DE3150 (P < 0.05). Pigs in DE3150 had the highest Cu concentration in LD muscle compared with those in DE3200, DE3250 (P < 0.05). The C16:1 proportion of LD muscle was lower (P < 0.01) and C20:1 was higher (P < 0.05) in DE3050 than that in the other dietary treatments. The C18:3n6 and C20:3n6 proportions of BF muscle in DE3150 were higher than those in DE 3050, DE3200 and DE3250 (P < 0.05). For LD muscle, mRNA expressions of type I and IIa MyHC in group DE3150 were higher than other treatments (P < 0.01). The LD muscle in DE3150 expressed higher PPARd than in other groups (P < 0.01). Pigs in DE3100 expressed higher FOX1 than in DE3200 and DE3250 (P < 0.05). Sterol-regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPa) mRNA expression decreased linearly when dietary energy level increased in BF muscle (P < 0.01). In conclusion, a 200 kcal/kg decrease in digestible energy for 4 consecutive weeks did not affect growth performance of Xiangcun Black pigs. Furthermore, LD and BF muscle respond differently to dietary energy level, and meat quality was improved by the medium energy level during the finishing phase.

Keywords: Energy; Fatty acid; Growth performance; Muscle; Myofibrillar morphology.