Influences of Beta-Alanine and <span style="font-variant: small-caps">l</span>-Histidine Supplementation on Growth Performance, Meat Quality, Carnosine Content, and mRNA Expression of Carnosine-Related Enzymes in Broilers
Bo Qi,
Jing Wang,
Meng Hu,
Youbiao Ma,
Shugeng Wu,
Guanghai Qi,
Kai Qiu,
Haijun Zhang
Affiliations
Bo Qi
Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center of Biological Feed, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Jing Wang
Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center of Biological Feed, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Meng Hu
Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center of Biological Feed, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Youbiao Ma
Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center of Biological Feed, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Shugeng Wu
Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center of Biological Feed, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Guanghai Qi
Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center of Biological Feed, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Kai Qiu
Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center of Biological Feed, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Haijun Zhang
Key Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center of Biological Feed, Feed Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
The current study investigated the effect of dietary l-histidine and beta-alanine supplementation on growth performance, meat quality, carnosine content, and gene expression of carnosine-related enzymes in broilers. A two-factor design was adopted in this study. A total of 640 1-day-old male broilers were assigned to eight treatments with factorial arrangement containing four levels of l-histidine (0, 650, 1300, or 1950 mg/kg) and two levels of beta-alanine (0 or 1200 mg/kg) supplementation; 0 mg/kg histidine and/or 0 mg/kg were treated as control groups. Each treatment including eight replicates with 10 birds each and the feeding trial lasted for 42 days. Dietary supplementation with l-histidine and beta-alanine did not affect average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of broilers during the grower (22–42 days) and the entire phase (1–42 days), compared with the control group (p > 0.05). The only exception was a significantly reduced ADG in the 1950 mg/kg l-histidine group in the starter period (1–21 days, p l-Histidine at 1950 mg/kg significantly decreased redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) values of the meat at 45 min postmortem (p l-histidine significantly increased ΔpH in breast muscle (p l-histidine markedly increased total superoxide dismutase activity and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) both in breast muscle (p p p p p l-histidine and beta-alanine significantly increased muscle peptide (carnosine and anserine) content (p l-histidine, and l-histidine decarboxylase genes (p l-histidine and 1200 mg/kg beta-alanine. Overall, dietary l-histidine and beta-alanine could improve meat quality and antioxidant capacity, enhance the carnosine and anserine content, and upregulate the gene expression of carnosine synthesis-related enzymes in broilers.
