Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Mar;104(2):418-430.
doi: 10.1111/jpn.13278. Epub 2020 Jan 9.

Effects of dietary energy level on growth performance, blood parameters and meat quality in fattening male Hu lambs

Qiye Wang  1   2 , Yancan Wang  1 , Tarique Hussain  3 , Chunpeng Dai  2 , Jianzhong Li  1 , Pengfei Huang  1 , Yali Li  1 , Xueqin Ding  1 , Jing Huang  1 , Fengjie Ji  4 , Hanlin Zhou  4 , Huansheng Yang  1
Affiliations

Effects of dietary energy level on growth performance, blood parameters and meat quality in fattening male Hu lambs

Qiye Wang et al. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2020 Mar.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Hu lamb; amino acid profiles; energy level; fatty acid profiles; meat quality.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Abdel-Ghani, A. A., Solouma, G. M. A., Abd Elmoty, A. K. I., Kassab, A. Y., & Soliman, E. B. (2011). Productive performance and blood metabolites as affected by protected protein in sheep. Open Journal of Animal Sciences, 1(02), 24-32. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojas.2011.12004
    1. Abdullah, A. Y., Awawdeh, F. T., Musallam, H. S., Titi, H. H., Obeidat, B. S., Kridli, R. T., … Abu Ishmais, M. A. (2008). Performance and carcass characteristics of intact and castrated male Black goat kids fed diets of various energy levels. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 48(9), 1217-1224. https://doi.org/10.1071/EA07368
    1. Andres, A. I., Cava, R., Martin, D., Ventanas, J., & Ruiz, J. (2005). Lipolysis in dry-cured ham: Influence of salt content and processing conditions. Food Chemistry, 90(4), 523-533. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2004.05.013
    1. Arsenos, G., Banos, G., Fortomaris, P., Katsaounis, N., Stamataris, C., Tsaras, L., & Zygoyiannis, D. (2002). Eating quality of lamb meat: Effects of breed, sex, degree of maturity and nutritional management. Meat Science, 60(4), 379-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0309-1740(01)00147-4
    1. Beam, T. M., Jenkins, T. C., Moate, P. J., Kohn, R. A., & Palmquist, D. L. (2000). Effects of amount and source of fat on the rates of lipolysis and biohydrogenation of fatty acids in ruminal contents. Journal of Dairy Science, 83(11), 2564-2573. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(00)75149-6

Publication types

Associated data

LinkOut - more resources