Effects of Co-Supplementation of β-Galacto-Oligosaccharides and Methionine on Breast Meat Quality, Meat Oxidative Stability, and Selected Meat Quality Genes in Broilers
Ahmad, S., Yousaf, M.S., Tahir, S.K., Rashid, M.A., Majeed, K.A., Naseem, M., Raza, M., Hayat, Z., Khalid, A., Zaneb, H., Rehman, H.
Abstract
The present study was designed to investigate the effects of co-supplementation of β-galacto-oligosaccharides (β-GOS), a prebiotic, and methionine on selected meat quality traits, and the pathways governing breast muscle formation and degradation in broilers. Day-old broilers (n = 288) were distributed in a 3×2 factorial design (6 groups and 6 replicates/group) based on three dietary levels of β-GOS (0, 0.2 and 0.5%) and two levels of methionine (0.5 and 1.0%). On day 35, two birds per replicate (12 birds per group) were exsanguinated to collect breast muscle samples for analysis. Results showed that β-GOS supplementation reduced the initial pH<sub>15min</sub> (P<0.05), rate of pH change, cooking loss (P<0.05), and muscle fiber diameter (P<0.05) with a concomitant increase in the muscle catalase level (P<0.05), and fiber density (P<0.05). Methionine (1.0%) downregulated the expression of MAFbx (P<0.05) and MuRF1 (P<0.05) genes. Methionine (0.5%) supplementation significantly decreased the drip loss and upregulated the expression of MyoD (P<0.05) and M-CK (P<0.05) genes. We conclude that though β-GOS and methionine co-supplementation did not show any promising effects on meat quality in broilers, still, both β-GOS and methionine partially improved the selected breast meat traits (decreased pH<sub>15min</sub>, ∆pH, elevated antioxidant activity, lower cooking loss, and higher muscle fiber density) and breast muscle degradative changes (downregulating the expressions of MuRF1 and MAFbx genes) respectively.<br/>