The effects of dietary α-linolenic acid on growth performance, meat quality, fatty acid composition and liver relative enzyme mRNA expression of growing meat rabbits

Abstract

The effects of five levels of added -linolenic acid (ALA) (0, 1, 2, performance, meat quality, fatty acids, mRNA 3, and 4 g kg -1 diet, as-fed basis) in diets on growth performance, meat qualexpression ity, fatty acid composition of muscle and liver, and expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1 (CPT1) mRNA in the liver of growing meat rabbits were studied. A quadratic effect of ALA addition on average daily intake was found (P < 0.0001). ALA addition had a significant influence on muscle colour of longissimus lumborum (LL), including L*, a*, and b* (P < 0.0001, P = 0.0007, and P = 0.0120, respectively). The monoun-