Effects of Dietary Supplementation with <span style="font-variant: small-caps">dl</span>-Methionine and <span style="font-variant: small-caps">dl</span>-Methionyl-<span style="font-variant: small-caps">dl</span>-Methionine in Breeding Pigeons on the Carcass Characteristics, Meat Quality and Antioxidant Activity of Squabs

• Main Authors: Shi-Guang Jiang, Neng-Xia Pan, Meng-Jie Chen, Xiu-Qi Wang, Hui-Chao Yan, Chun-Qi Gao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
• Series: Antioxidants
• Subjects: squabs; <span style="font-variant: small-caps">dl</span>-methionine; <span style="font-variant: small-caps">dl</span>-methionyl-<span style="font-variant: small-caps">dl</span>-methionine; carcass characteristics; meat quality; antioxidant activity
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/8/10/435
• ISSN: 2076-3921

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-methionine (<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met) and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-methionyl-<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-methionine (<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met-Met) in breeding pigeons on the carcass characteristics, meat quality and antioxidant activity of squabs. A total of 324 pairs of breeding pigeons were selected and allotted to 9 treatments in a completely randomized design, and the birds were fed dietary treatments for 45 d, including a Met-deficient basal diet (BD, crude protein = 15%, Met = 0.25%) and BD + 0.15%, 0.30%, 0.45%, or 0.60% <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met or <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met-Met diets. Compared with the diet fed to the BD group, dietary <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met or <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met-Met supplementation effectively increased the carcass yield, semieviscerated yield, eviscerated yield, breast muscle yield, thigh muscle yield, <i>a</i>* value, catalase activity, total superoxide dismutase activity and glutathione peroxidase activity, but decreased the <i>L</i>* value, malonaldehyde concentration, drip loss and cooking loss of squabs (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). The relative bioavailability values of <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met-Met relative to those of <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met were 467% and 376% based on carcass yield and breast muscle yield, respectively (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). Moreover, <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met-Met was more effective than <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met in decreasing the drip loss and improving the antioxidant activity of the breast and thigh muscles of squabs (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). As a source of Met, <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met-Met, rather than <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">dl</span>-Met, was more beneficial to squabs.