Effects of dietary digestible energy concentration on growth, meat quality, and PPARγ gene expression in muscle and adipose tissues of Rongchang piglets

This study investigated the effects of dietary digestible energy (DE) concentration (3.20, 3.40, 3.60 & 3.80 Mcal/kg) on growth, meat quality, and PPARγ gene expression in muscle and adipose tissues of Rongchang piglets. There was a quadratic increase in average daily gain and a linear decrease in the ratio of feed intake and gain as dietary DE increased (P < 0.05). Increasing dietary DE resulted in a linear increase of back fat thickness and intramuscular fat content (P < 0.05). A significant linear or quadratic effect (P < 0.01) was detected for shearing force. Increasing dietary DE linearly enhanced the expression of PPARγ in adipose tissues (P < 0.01). These data suggest that dietary DE had an impact on carcass and meat quality of Rongchang piglets. This could be partly due to the increased gene expression of PPARγ in adipose tissues, which may regulate the fat deposition of whole body.