Background: Pork produced by outdoor-reared pigs raised mostly on alfalfa pastures attracts increasing population of consumer from most of the world. In China, pigs were raised with alfalfa-containing diets to seek for good quality pork.However, the influence of dietary alfalfa involving high level of insoluble dietary fiber(IDF) on pig intestinal luminal microbiota composition remains unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of alfalfa on luminal microbiota and short chain fatty acids(SCFA) production, and gene expressions involved in SCFA sensing, transporting and absorbing in pig caecal mucosa.Results: Twenty-four growing pigs were randomly allotted to four diets containing 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% alfalfa meal for a 28-d experiment. Ingestion of alfalfa meal-contained diets significantly increased the ratio of body weight gain to feed consumption. Illumina MiS eq sequencing of the V3 region of the 16 S r RNA genes showed that alfalfa-containing diet significantly decreased the relative abundance of genera Turicibacter, Acidiphilium, Paracoccus, Propionibacterium,Corynebacterium, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and Staphylococcus, and increased the relative abundance of genera Lachnospira, Marvinbryantia, and Desulfovibrio in the caecal digesta. Butyrate concentration was significantly increased in the hindgut by the supplementation of alfalfa meal in diets. The m RNA gene expressions of FFAR3, SMCT1, MCT1,PYY, and GCG were significantly increased in the caecal mucosa of pigs fed alfalfa meal.Conclusions: Our results suggested that alfalfa-containing diet has exerted significant impacts on caecal microbiota composition, butyrate concentration and significantly upregulated m RNA expression of host caecal mucosal genes involved in SCFA sensing and absorption as well as regulation of satiety.
Background: The current study was carried out to determine effects of dietary protein source and crude protein(CP)level on carcass characteristics, meat quality, and muscle amino acid(AA) profile in finishing gilts. The experiment was designed as a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement with two sources of dietary proteins(cottonseed meal, CSM vs. soybean meal, SBM) and two levels of CP(12 % vs. 14 %, as-fed basis). Seventy-two crossbred gilts(89.5 ± 0.9 kg) were allotted to one of four dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design for a period of 28 d. All diets were formulated to be isoenergetic and similar concentrations of standardized ileal digestible essential AA covering the nutrient requirements of pigs.Results: Growth, carcass characteristics and meat quality were not affected by dietary protein source nor crude protein level(P > 0.10) except that average daily feed intake was increased by CSM diets(P = 0.03). Gilts offered reduced protein diets had lower muscle p H45min(P < 0.05). Neither dietary protein source nor crude protein level influenced N deposition. However, reduced protein diets decreased N intake, N excretion, and serum urea nitrogen content, whilst improved N efficiency(P < 0.01). CSM diets increased N intake(P = 0.04),but did not depress N efficiency. The concentrations of phenylalanine, tryptophan, cysteine and tyrosine(P < 0.05) of the longissimus muscle were decreased when gilts offered CSM diets, while muscle intracellular free valine concentration was increased(P = 0.03). The gilts offered reduced protein diets had greater intracellular concentrations of free methionine, lysine, and total AA in muscle(P < 0.05).Conclusion: These results suggest that CSM could replace SBM as a primary protein source in finishing pig diets in terms of performance, N efficiency, carcass characteristics, and meat quality, but decrease the concentrations of muscle specific AA. Furthermore, the reduced protein diet played an important role in increasing muscle intracellular concentrations of specific free
