Abstract
Essential oils (EO) are secondary metabolites usually made up of terpenoids and phenylpropanoids and have antimicrobial properties. However, the feeding effects of EO-Cobalt (EOC) on the performance of goats are largely unknown. Herein we investigated and reported the effects of dietary EOC (0, 52, and 91 mg daily) on fiber producing cashmere goats. We determined the resulting phenotypes including live growth, carcass weight, meat quality, and cashmere fiber traits. We show that dietary supplement of EOC significantly promoted average daily gain (P < 0.05), and significantly improved carcass weight, and meat and hair fiber quality (P < 0.05). We further conducted RNA-seq using skin and liver tissues from each group to assess the molecular mechanism conferring these phenotypic changes. A total of 191 differentially expressed genes were found in the skin tissues (0 vs 91 mg), while 1,127 DEGs were found in livers. Analyses of liver samples for differential gene action and functional prediction found that EOC stimulated physiological changes in the body’s immune system at both blood and cell levels. Our results demonstrated the potential of using EO-based feed ingredient to improve animal growth performance, meat quality and fiber quality, and further illustrated the molecular basis that contribute to phenotypes at physiological levels.
Highlights
Essential oils (EO) are volatile aromatic compounds produced by plants as complex mixtures of secondary metabolites, EO have a large number of beneficial properties on health through their well-known antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities[1]
We show that diets supplemented with EOC are capable of significantly improve production performance including animal growth, carcass weight, physiological parameters, meat quality, and fiber traits in cashmere goats
We showed that the effects of the EOC on total fatty acid concentration and composition, the results found that the myristic (C14:0) was significant increased with EO supplementation (Table 3)
Summary
Essential oils (EO) are volatile aromatic compounds produced by plants (herbs and spices) as complex mixtures of secondary metabolites, EO have a large number of beneficial properties on health through their well-known antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities[1]. Essential oils appeared to be very promising compounds as they selectively reduced methane production and protein breakdown in both in vitro and in vivo studies[3], while the use of EO as feed additives was accompanied with decreased feed degradability and lowered volatile fatty acid[4]. The antimicrobial action of essential oils in feed systems is well documented and there is a growing interest in studies of natural additives as potential antioxidants and as substitutes for antibiotics when illegality for antibiotic use is totally enforced worldwide[7]. This study reports important finding regarding potential regulatory genes and effects of EOC, including hair fiber and meat quality in farm animals
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