Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (3): 1085-1094.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.03.021

• ANIMAL NUTRITION AND FEEDS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Feeding Regimens on Growth Performance, Slaughter Performance, Meat Quality and Rumen Bacteria Community of Sunit Sheep

WANG Weihao1, DUAN Yan1, WANG Hongdi1, DOU Lu1, LIU Ting1, KANG Letian1, SUN Lina1, AO Tehenggerile2, JIN Ye1*   

  1. 1. College of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China;
    2. Bureau of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Science and Technology of Ulat Middle Banner, Ulat Middle Banner 015300, China
  • Received:2022-05-19 Online:2023-03-23 Published:2023-03-21

Abstract: This experiment aimed to investigate the effects of feeding regimens on growth performance, slaughter performance, meat quality and the rumen bacteria community of Sunit sheep. Twenty-four healthy Sunit sheep aged 3 months with the average body weight of (20.16±1.56) kg were selected and randomly divided into 2 groups with 12 sheep in each group. The control group (confinement group) was fed a basal diet and the experimental group (pasture group) was fed natural forage. The pre-feeding period was 7 days and the trial period was 90 days. The results were shown as follows:1) The final body weight, average daily gain and chest circumference of the Sunit sheep in the confinement group were significantly higher than those in the pasture group (P<0.05). 2) The carcass weight, net meat weight, dressing percentage and meat to bone ratio were significantly higher in the confinement group than in the pasture group (P<0.05). 3)The longissimus dorsi muscle brightness (L*) value, cooking loss and shear force of the confinement group were significantly higher than those of the pasture group (P<0.05), while the pH24 h of longissimus dorsi muscle was significantly lower than that of the pasture group (P<0.05). 4) Compared to pasture feeding, the Shannon index of the confinement group was significantly decreased (P<0.05). At the phylum level, confinement feeding significantly increased the relative abundances of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria (P<0.05), and significantly decreased the relative abundance of Firmicutes in the rumen (P<0.05). At the genus level, confinement feeding significantly increased the relative abundance of Prevotella_1 (P<0.05), and significantly decreased the relative abundances of Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group and Butyrivibrio_2 in the rumen (P<0.05). Overall, confinement feeding decreases the rumen microbial diversity of Sunit sheep, improves the weight gain effect and slaughter performance of Sunit sheep, enhances cooking loss and shear force of longissimus dorsi muscle, but degrades the processing quality and eating taste of mutton.

Key words: feeding regimens, growth performance, slaughter performance, meat quality, rumen bacteria community

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