TY - JOUR JO - Journal of Animal and Feed Sciences J2 - J. Anim. Feed Sci. SN - 1230-1388 VL - 22 IS - 2 PY - 2013 ID - Du2013 TI - 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 AB - The effects of five levels of added α-linolenic acid (ALA) (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 g · kg –1 diet, as-fed basis) in diets on growth performance, meat quality, 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 monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content of LL decreased as dietary ALA increased ( P = 0.0001) and the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and C18:3 (n-3) contents in the LL and liver increased with dietary ALA increase ( P = 0.0006, P < 0.0001, P < 0.0001, and P < 0.0001, respectively). The expression of ACC mRNA in the liver decreased ( P < 0.0001), that of CPT 1, increased ( P < 0.0001) as dietary ALA increased. AU - Du, H. T. AU - Wang, C. Y. AU - Wang, X. P. AU - Ma, M. W. AU - Li, F. C. SP - 122 EP - 129 DA - 2013 DO - 10.22358/jafs/66002/2013 UR - https://doi.org/10.22358/jafs/66002/2013 ER -