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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1469947
This article is part of the Research Topic Reducing Feed-Food Competition: A Transdisciplinary Approach View all 4 articles

Feeding Citrus Pomace Fermented with Combined Probiotics Improves Growth Performance, Meat Quality, Fatty Acid Profile, and Antioxidant Capacity in Yellow-feathered Broilers

Provisionally accepted
Yanchen Liu Yanchen Liu 1Yantian Tang Yantian Tang 1,2Huadi Mei Huadi Mei 1Zhichang Liu Zhichang Liu 1Zhenming Li Zhenming Li 1Xianyong Ma Xianyong Ma 1Zhihui Luo Zhihui Luo 3Weiwen Huang Weiwen Huang 4Yuanfei Li Yuanfei Li 1*Miao Yu Miao Yu 1*
  • 1 Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 2 Heyuan Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Heyuan, China
  • 3 Longping Huangmang Ecological Agriculture Farm, Qingyuan, China
  • 4 Kaiping Xufeng Farming and Husbandry Co., Ltd, Jiangmen, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The reasonable and efficient utilization of agricultural by-products as animal feed has the capacity to not only mitigate the scarcity of conventional feedstuff but also alleviate the environmental load. This study was aimed to investigate the effects of feeding citrus pomace (CP) fermented with combined probiotics on growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality and antioxidant capacity in yellowfeathered broilers. A cohort of 540 female yellow-feathered broilers (Qingyuan partridge chicken, 90day-old) were randomly divided into three groups and respectively fed the basal diet (Control), diet containing 10% unfermented CP (UFCP) and diet containing 10% fermented CP (FCP). The results showed that dietary FCP significantly increased (p < 0.05) the final-body-weight and average-dailygain of broilers, and the pH45 min and b*24 h values in breast muscle, while tendentiously lowering the feed-to-gain ratio (p = 0.076). The levels of inosine monophosphate (p < 0.05) and intramuscular fat (p = 0.083) in the FCP group were higher than those in the control group. Remarkably, dietary FCP and UFCP increased the levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and n-6 PUFAs (p < 0.05). Moreover, dietary FCP decreased (p < 0.05) the malondialdehyde content and increased (p < 0.05) the glutathione peroxidase content in serum. Ingestion of FCP and UFCP increased the levels of total antioxidant capacity and catalase activity in serum, and concentrations of glutathione peroxidase and catalase in breast muscle (p < 0.05). Additionally, diet containing FCP or UFCP upregulated the expression of SREBP-1c, FAS, NRF2, GSH-Px, and CAT in breast muscle (p < 0.05). Overall, dietary supplementation with FCP obviously improved meat quality, enhanced the antioxidant capacity and regulated the lipid metabolism, contributing to the improvement of growth performance of yellowfeathered broilers.

    Keywords: Fermented citrus pomace, Yellow-feathered Broilers, growth performance, meat quality, antioxidant capacity, fatty acid composition, Lipid Metabolism

    Received: 24 Jul 2024; Accepted: 04 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Tang, Mei, Liu, Li, Ma, Luo, Huang, Li and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yuanfei Li, Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
    Miao Yu, Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

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