Effects of Dietary Energy Levels on Growth Performance, Serum Metabolites, and Meat Quality of Jersey Cattle–Yaks

Abstract

Energy feed can provide animals with balanced nutrition, thereby enhancing their growth performance. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary energy levels on the growth performance, serum metabolites, and meat quality of Jersey cattle–yaks. A total of 24 male Jersey cattle–yaks were randomly divided into three groups. Each group was fed diets with metabolizable energy levels of 8.21 MJ/kg (LE), 9.50 MJ/kg (ME), and 10.65 MJ/kg (HE), respectively. The HE and ME groups showed significantly higher final body weight, average daily gain (ADG), and feed efficiency compared to the LE group (p < 0.05). The glucose (GLU) and total cholesterol (TC) concentrations were significantly increased in the serum of the ME and HE groups (p < 0.05). The low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were significantly higher in the serum of the HE group than in the ME group (p < 0.05). Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels exhibited a significant decrease with increasing metabolizable energy levels in the diet (p < 0.05). Increasing dietary energy levels enhances the eye muscle area and intramuscular fat content of Jersey cattle–yaks (p < 0.05), with no effect on pH45 min, pH24 h, and shear force. In the HE group, the levels of heneicosanoic acid (C21:0), palmitoleic acid (C16:1), elaidic acid (C18:1n9t), and eicosadienoic acid (C20:2n6) were notably elevated (p < 0.05) when compared to the LE group. We concluded that a higher dietary energy level enhanced the growth performance and meat quality traits of male Jersey cattle–yaks.