Dietary inulin modulates pork quality and systemic health via gut microbiome and metabolome changes in finishing pigs

Inulin is widely recognized for its ability to improve glucolipid metabolism and modulate the gut microbiome and metabolome. However, the potential to influence pork flavor development through gut environment changes in animal husbandry remains unexplored. This study investigated the relationships among systemic health, meat flavor, gut microbiome, and metabolome in pigs fed a diet supplemented with inulin. Thirty-six male Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire pigs (75.0 ± 1.5 kg) were divided into 2 groups, and fed either a regular diet (CON group) or a diet containing 0.5% inulin (INU group) for 60 d. Inulin supplementation did not adversely affect production or slaughter performance (P > 0.05) but enhanced systemic health by improving serum biochemistry indicators (P < 0.05). Descriptive analysis of pork composition revealed numerically higher levels of key fatty acids (C16:0, C18:0, C18:1) and umami-related amino acids (e.g., glutamic acid) in the INU group compared to the CON group. Inulin supplementation also modulated the gut microbiome, reducing alpha-diversity and increase specific microbes including Lactobacillus, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Romboutsia, Family_Xlll_AD3011_group, Roseburia, and Turicibacter. Furthermore, inulin supplementation significantly altered metabolic pathways, down-regulating arginine biosynthesis, linoleic acid metabolism, riboflavin metabolism, and alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism. These microbial and metabolic changes strongly correlated with the observed alterations in pork quality. Dietary inulin supplementation represents a promising strategy to modulate pork quality and systemic health without compromising productive performance. However, due to the exploratory nature of the amino acid and fatty acid analyses with limited sample size, further studies are needed to further confirm these findings.