Impacts of feeding different lipid sources on growth performance, thigh meat quality characteristics, dietary amino acid metabolism and small intestine development in Landes geese

This test aimed to assess the effects of different lipid sources on growth performance, thigh meat quality, dietary amino acid metabolism and small intestine development in Landes geese. Nine hundred and ninety healthy sixty-day-old Landes geese with a BW of 3.87 ± 0.13 kg (mean ± SEM) were randomly assigned to three treatments, with 15 replicates of 22 geese per pen. All the geese were overfed with the same corn meal-based ration, while the treatment 1) included 25 g/kg soybean oil; 2) included 25 g/kg goose fat; 3) included 10 g/kg soybean oil plus 15 g/kg goose fat (MIX). The rearing period lasted 30 d, and all the geese were slaughtered at the end. Results showed that geese supplemented with MIX had greater average daily feed intake (P < 0.001), body weight gain (P = 0.043) and daily retention of dietary Met (P = 0.006) and Arg (P = 0.013) compared to those of geese overfed with soybean oil, while soybean oil increased the daily fecal excretion of dietary amino acids such as Leu (P = 0.037), Phe (P = 0.028) and Lys (P = 0.021). Besides, the thigh of geese from the MIX had higher levels of crude protein (P = 0.024) and ether extract (P = 0.038), redness (P = 0.045), yellowness (P = 0.025), shear force (P = 0.010), unsaturated fatty acids (P < 0.001) and essential amino acids (P = 0.001) compared with these of geese from soybean oil treatment. Furthermore, geese in the MIX had a higher small intestinal weight (P = 0.019) and greater ratios of villus height to crypt depth in the duodenum (P = 0.004), jejunum (P = 0.010) and ileum (P = 0.021) than these of geese from soybean oil treatment. In conclusion, inclusion of 10 g/kg soybean oil combined with 15 g/kg goose fat in feed was more beneficial in improving growth performance and certain meat quality of Landes geese than using a single lipid.