Work

Dietary duck fat improves meat quality via gut-muscle axis-mediated intramuscular lipid deposition in Cherry Valley duck

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This study investigated the effects of different duck fat (DF) levels on growth performance, intestinal microbiota, and meat quality in Cherry Valley ducks. A total of 120 one-day-old male Cherry Valley ducks (initial body weight 75.00±2.93 g) were randomly allocated to three treatment groups, with 5 replicates per group and 8 ducks per replicate, and fed diets supplemented with 3%, 6%, or 9% DF (DF3, DF6, DF9) respectively for 42 days. Compared with DF3, DF6 increased body weight at 14 d (803.75 vs. 740.00 g; P < 0.05), along with the increase of average daily gain (52.05 vs. 47.50 g/d) and average daily feed intake (65.71 vs. 61.43 g/d) during 1-14 d (P < 0.05). At 42 d, compared with DF3, DF6 and DF9 increased breast muscle intramuscular fat (IMF) content (5.13% and 5.44% vs 3.75%, P < 0.05), accompanied by higher lipogenic gene expression (P < 0.05). Compared with DF6, DF9 increased serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations, as well as the feed-to-gain ratio during 15-35 d (P < 0.05). Untargeted lipidomics analysis showed that compared with DF3, DF6 and DF9 increased the abundances of selected triglyceride (TG) species in breast muscle (P < 0.05). Furthermore, DF6 and DF9 increased the relative abundance of cecal Lachnospiraceae and butyrate concentration compared with DF3 (P < 0.05), with no significant difference between DF6 and DF9 (P > 0.05). Spearman correlation analyzes showed positive associations among cecal microbial characteristics, butyrate concentration, breast muscle lipid profiles, lipid metabolism-related gene expression, and IMF content. In conclusion, 6% duck fat was the optimum dose which improved early growth and IMF deposition in ducks. Although 9% duck fat increased IMF content, it impaired feed efficiency during 15-35 d and increased serum lipid concentrations. These findings provided new insights into the gut-muscle axis which might regulate intramuscular lipid deposition through mediating cecal microbial characteristics and metabolites in ducks.

Source: Poultry Science

DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2026.107963