Evaluation of dietary metabolizable energy concentrations on meat quality and lipid metabolism‐related gene expression in yellow‐feathered chickens

This study evaluated the effects of different dietary metabolizable energy (ME) concentrations on the meat quality, carcass traits, volatile flavour and lipid metabolism-related gene expression levels in yellow-feathered chickens. In total, 600 Huxu female chickens aged 90 days were randomly assigned to six dietary treatments, each with 10 replicates of 10 birds. During the finisher phase, the birds were fed diets containing 2880 (low), 2940, 3000, 3060, 3120 and 3180 (high) kcal ME/kg. The results showed that the average daily gain of chickens increased as the dietary ME concentration increased, while the feed to gain improved (p < 0.05), and the intramuscular fat content of breast muscle increased (p < 0.05). The energy concentration had no effect on the breast muscle pH (45 min and 24 h), colour parameter (L*) or percentage of drip loss (p > 0.05), but the shear force values decreased significantly (p < 0.05). The diameter and area of the breast muscle fiber decreased and the muscle fibre density increased as the dietary ME concentration increased (p < 0.05). The highest ME concentration (3180 kcal) increased the percentages of aldehydes (hexanal, heptanal, 2,4-nonadienal, octanal, nonanal and 2-decenal), alcohols (2-nonen-1-ol, trans-2-undecen-1-ol, 7-hexadecenal, 2-hexyl-1-decanoal and n-nonadecanol-1,3,7,11-trimethyl-1-dodecanol), alkanes (2,6-dimethyl-heptadecane) and carboxylic acids (9-hexadecenoic acid), but reduced the percentages of octadecanal, octadecane, heneicosane and tetradecanal (p < 0.05). In addition, the mRNA gene expression levels of fatty acid-binding protein 3 and apolipoprotein B were significantly upregulated in the liver, whereas that of cholesteryl ester transfer protein was significantly downregulated. In conclusion, increasing the ME diet to 3180 kcal/kg significantly improved the quality and flavour of the meat from yellow-feathered broilers. our finding may help poultry producers to improve the taste of meat by regulating genes related to lipid metabolism, thereby achieving the flavour and taste characteristics preferred by consumers.