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The worldwide meat industry is experiencing significant expansion, especially the market of red meats such as pork. Pork has traditionally been a primary protein source for consumers; however, its overall quality and nutritional content have declined due to a recent emphasis on boosting growth rates and increasing the proportion of lean meat. With the increase of lean meat proportion of pork, the intramuscular fat content also tends to decrease, thus affecting meat quality indexes such as taste, flavour, and meat colour. The pork industry is striving to decrease subcutaneous fat deposition in pigs while simultaneously enhancing meat quality. A promising approach to achieve this is the incorporation of dietary additives capable of reducing subcutaneous fat deposition without altering the intramuscular fat content. As a new generation of non-toxic, harmless, and safe feed additives, nucleotides play an important role in promoting intestinal maturation, intestinal mucosal development, growth performance, metabolism, and lipid metabolism. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effects of adenosine and adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP) supplementation on the growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and lipid metabolism in adipose tissues of finishing pigs. The pigs were allocated to three treatment groups: the control diet, 0.2% adenosine diet, or 0.2% AMP diet.
As a result, compared with control group, both adenosine and AMP groups increased in carcass straight length and decreased in drip loss, while AMP group tended to increase in redness value and decreased in free amino acid content in longissimus thoracis muscle. Additionally, adenosine or AMP supplementation increased the adenosine or AMP content in serum, adipose tissue, and longissimus thoracis muscle, as well as the protein level of adenosine 2A receptor in adipose tissue. Moreover, both adenosine and AMP groups showed an increase in the expression of lipolysis genes (ATGL and HSL) in adipose tissue.
Overall, AMP supplementation could improve meat quality, and adenosine and AMP supplementation regulate the lipid metabolism of finishing pigs.
Rao S, Cui Z, Zhang L, Ma S, Huang S, Feng L, Chen Y, Luo J, Li J, Qian S, Liu Y, Yang L, Yin Y, Tan C. Effects of dietary adenosine and adenosine 5′-monophosphate supplementation on carcass characteristics, meat quality, and lipid metabolism in adipose tissues of finishing pigs. Meat Science. 2023; 201: 109174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2023.109174