Effects of dietary L-Citrulline supplementation on growth performance, meat quality, and fecal microbial composition in finishing pigs

Junhua Du; Mailin Gan; Zhongwei Xie; Chengpeng Zhou; Yunhong Jing; Menglin Li; Chengming Liu; Meng Wang; Haodong Dai; Zhiyang Huang; Lei Chen; Ye Zhao; Lili Niu; Yan Wang; Shunhua Zhang; Zongyi Guo; Linyuan Shen; Li Zhu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1209389

Effects of dietary L-Citrulline supplementation on growth performance, meat quality, and fecal microbial composition in finishing pigs

Front Microbiol. 2023 Aug 3:14:1209389. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1209389. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Junhua Du^{1

2}, Mailin Gan^{1

2}, Zhongwei Xie^{1

2}, Chengpeng Zhou^{1

2}, Yunhong Jing^{1

2}, Menglin Li^{1

2}, Chengming Liu^{1

2}, Meng Wang^{1

2}, Haodong Dai^{1

2}, Zhiyang Huang^{1

2}, Lei Chen^{1

2}, Ye Zhao^{1

2}, Lili Niu^{1

2}, Yan Wang^{1

2}, Shunhua Zhang^{1

2}, Zongyi Guo³, Linyuan Shen^{1

2}, Li Zhu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-omics, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Animal and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
² Farm Animal Genetic Resource Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
³ Chongqing Academy of Animal Science, Chongqing, China.

Abstract

Gut microbiota play an important role in the gut ecology and development of pigs, which is always regulated by nutrients. This study investigated the effect of L-Citrulline on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and its potential regulatory mechanism. The results showed that 1% dietary L-Citrulline supplementation for 52 days significantly increased final weight, liveweight gain, carcass weight, and average backfat and markedly decreased drip loss (p < 0.05) of finishing pigs compared with the control group. Microbial analysis of fecal samples revealed a marked increase in α-diversity and significantly altered composition of gut microbiota in finishing pigs in response to L-Citrulline. In particular, these altered gut microbiota at the phylum and genus level may be mainly involved in the metabolic process of carbohydrate, energy, and amino acid, and exhibited a significant association with final weight, carcass weight, and backfat thickness. Taken together, our data revealed the potential role of L-Citrulline in the modulation of growth performance, carcass characteristics, and the meat quality of finishing pigs, which is most likely associated with gut microbiota.

Keywords: L-Citrulline; carcass characteristics; fecal microbes; finishing pigs; growth performance.