Abstract
BackgroundThe mechanism of high ambient temperature affecting meat quality is not clear till now. This study investigated the effect of high ambient temperature on meat quality and nutrition metabolism in finishing pigs.MethodsAll pigs received the same corn-soybean meal diet. A total of 24 Landrace × Large White pigs (60 kg BW, all were female) were assigned to three groups: 22AL (fed ad libitum at 22 °C), 35AL (ad libitum fed at 35 °C), and 22PF (at 22 °C, but fed the amount consumed by pigs raised at 35 °C) and the experiment lasted for 30 days.ResultsFeed intake, weight gain, and intramuscular fat (IMF) content of pigs were reduced, both directly by high temperature and indirectly through reduced feed intake. Transcriptome analysis of longissimus dorsi (LM) showed that downregulated genes caused by feed restriction were mainly involved in muscle development and energy metabolism; and upregulated genes were mainly involved in response to nutrient metabolism or extracellular stimulus. Apart from the direct effects of feed restriction, high temperature negatively affected the muscle structure and development, energy, or catabolic metabolism, and upregulated genes were mainly involved in DNA or protein damage or recombination, cell cycle process or biogenesis, stress response, or immune response.ConclusionBoth high temperature and reduced feed intake affected growth performance and meat quality. Apart from the effects of reducing feed intake, high temperature per se negatively downregulated cell cycle and upregulated heat stress response. High temperature also decreased the energy or catabolic metabolism level through PPAR signaling pathway.
Highlights
Continuous high temperature, especially in summer in tropical or subtropical countries, is an unfavorable factor in swine production
There were no differences in drip loss at 24 h or 48 h postmortem, nor in meat color (a, b, and L* value) except for L* at 45-min postmortem being lowest in the 22AL controls(P < 0.05)
Apart from the effects of reducing feed intake, a direct effect of high temperature on growth performance and meat quality was involved in negatively regulating cell cycle, stimulating protein, DNA damage and cell apoptosis, and heat stress response
Summary
Continuous high temperature, especially in summer in tropical or subtropical countries, is an unfavorable factor in swine production. Persistent exposure to high temperature decreases feed intake [1], growth performance [2], and meat quality [3, 4]. High temperature reduced intramuscular fat (IMF) deposition [5, 6] and changed the pH value of the meat [3, 7]. These alterations were traditionally believed to result from the. The mechanism of high ambient temperature affecting meat quality is not clear till now. This study investigated the effect of high ambient temperature on meat quality and nutrition metabolism in finishing pigs
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