title: Effects of dietary supplementation with carnosine on growth performance, meat quality, antioxidant capacity and muscle fiber characteristics in broiler chickens.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The effects of dietary carnosine were evaluated on the growth performance, meat quality, antioxidant capacity and muscle fiber characteristics in thigh muscle of 256 one-day-old male broilers assigned to four diets - basal diets supplemented with 0, 100, 200 or 400 mg kg-1carnosine respectively - during a 42 day experiment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Carnosine concentration and carnosine synthase expression in thigh muscle were linearly increased (P < 0.05) and the feed/gain ratio was decreased (P < 0.05) in the starter period by carnosine addition. Dietary supplementation with carnosine resulted in linear increases in pH45min, redness and cohesiveness and decreases in drip loss, cooking loss, shear force and hardness (P < 0.05). Carnosine addition elevated the activities of antioxidant enzymes and reduced contents of malondialdehyde and carbonyl compounds (P < 0.05). Dietary carnosine linearly decreased diameters and increased densities of muscle fibers (P < 0.01). The ratios of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) I and IIa were increased while that of MyHC IIb was decreased (P < 0.01). The mRNA expressions of genes related to fiber type transformation were linearly up-regulated (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicated that carnosine supplementation was beneficial to improve the growth performance, meat quality, antioxidant capacity and muscle fiber characteristics of broilers. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Animal Origin Food Production and Safety Guarantee of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Meat Production and Processing, Quality and Safety Control, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jiahui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Animal Origin Food Production and Safety Guarantee of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Meat Production and Processing, Quality and Safety Control, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Animal Origin Food Production and Safety Guarantee of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Meat Production and Processing, Quality and Safety Control, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jiaolong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Animal Origin Food Production and Safety Guarantee of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Meat Production and Processing, Quality and Safety Control, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Shuhao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Animal Origin Food Production and Safety Guarantee of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Meat Production and Processing, Quality and Safety Control, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Animal Origin Food Production and Safety Guarantee of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Meat Production and Processing, Quality and Safety Control, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Guanghong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D002336:Carnosine / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D002645:Chickens / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D002336:Carnosine
keywords: broiler; carnosine; meat quality; muscle antioxidant capacity; muscle fiber characteristics