Association of residual feed intake with growth and slaughtering performance, blood metabolism, and body composition in growing lambs

The aim of this study was to determine the association of residual feed intake (RFI) with growth performance, blood metabolic parameters, and body composition factors in growing lambs. Individual body weight (BW) and dry matter intake (DMI) were determined in 137 male Hu lambs that were given a pell...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2017-10, Vol.7 (1), p.12681-11, Article 12681
Main Authors: Zhang, Xiaoxue, Wang, Weimin, Mo, Futao, La, Yongfu, Li, Chong, Li, Fadi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/443/319/1488
631/601/1737
Abattoirs
Adrenocorticotropic hormone
Animal Feed
Animals
Blood
Body Composition
Body weight
Cattle
Dry matter
Duodenum
Energy consumption
Feed conversion
Feed efficiency
Feeding Behavior
Feeds
Hormones - blood
Humanities and Social Sciences
Kidneys
Liver
Male
Metabolic rate
Metabolism
Metabolome
multidisciplinary
Organ Specificity
Physical growth
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sheep - blood
Sheep - growth & development
Thyroxine
Viscera - growth & development
Weaning
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The aim of this study was to determine the association of residual feed intake (RFI) with growth performance, blood metabolic parameters, and body composition factors in growing lambs. Individual body weight (BW) and dry matter intake (DMI) were determined in 137 male Hu lambs that were given a pellet feed four times a day for 50 d. RFI did not show a correlation with metabolic BW (MBW) or average daily gain (ADG), but it showed a positive correlation with DMI and feed conversation ratio (FCR). Organ weight and intestine length had a large influence on RFI in lambs. The low-RFI lambs have smaller rumen and longer duodenum indicating the less feed intake and more sufficient absorption rate of low-RFI lambs. The smaller organs like liver, lung and kidney in low-RFI lambs may be related to lower energy consumption and slower metabolic rate. The observed bigger testis was in low-RFI lambs was another cause of the improved feed efficiency. Finally, the plasma concentrations of thyroxine (T4) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were lower in the ELow-RFI group than in the EHigh-RFI group. This study provides new insight into the biological processes underlying variations in feed efficiency in growing lambs.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-13042-7