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Interactive effects of glutamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid on growth performance and skeletal muscle amino acid metabolism of 22–42-day-old broilers exposed to hot environment

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Abstract

The present experiment was conducted to investigate the interactive effects between dietary glutamine (Gln, 0 and 5 g/kg) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA, 0 and 100 mg/kg) on growth performance and amino acid (AA) metabolism of broilers under hot environment. A total of 360 22-day-old Arbor Acres male chickens were randomly assigned to five treatment groups under thermoneutral chamber (PC, 23 °C) and cyclic heat stress (HS, 30–34 °C cycling) conditions. Compared with the PC group, cyclic HS decreased (P < 0.05) daily weight gain (DWG), daily feed consumption (DFC), the concentrations of Gln, glutamate (Glu), and GABA, and the activities of glutaminase and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) in breast muscle at 28, 35, and 42 days, while it increased (P < 0.05) the activities of glutamine synthetase (GS) and gamma-aminobutyric acid transaminase (GABA-T) at 28, 35, and 42 days. Dietary Gln and GABA improved (P < 0.05) DWG and DFC of broilers under cyclic HS during 28–42 days. In breast muscle, the Gln supplementation increased (P < 0.05) the concentrations of Gln (28, 35, and 42 days), Glu (28, 35, and 42 days), and GABA (42 days) and the activities of glutaminase (28, 35, and 42 days) and GAD (28, 35, and 42 days) but decreased (P < 0.05) GS activities at 28, 35, and 42 days and GABA-T activities at 28 days. The addition of GABA increased (P < 0.05) the concentrations of Gln and Glu and activities of glutaminase and GAD, while it decreased (P < 0.05) GABA-T activities at 28, 35, and 42 days. Significant interactions (P < 0.05) between Gln and GABA were found on breast skeletal muscle Gln concentrations, glutaminase activities, GS activities at 28 and 35 days, and DWG, GABA concentrations, and GABA-T activities at 28, 35, and 42 days in broilers under cyclic HS. In conclusion, the present results indicated that the interactions of exogenous Gln and GABA could offer a potential nutritional strategy to prevent HS-related depression in skeletal muscle Gln and GABA metabolism of broilers.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported financially by Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (1408085MC62, 1508085QC61), the research project of Anhui Science and Technology University (ZRC2014398), and the key discipline fund of Animal Science in Anhui Science and Technology University (AKZDXK2015B03). We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Prof. Guanghong Zhou for the assistance in the experimental design of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science, Anhui Science and Technology University, No. 9 Donghua road, Fengyang, 233100, People’s Republic of China

    Hong Hu, Sifa Dai, Like Wang, Jinling Hua, Chuanyan Che, Shaojun He, Aiyou Wen & Jinpeng Jiang

  2. College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Xi Bai & Assar Ali Shah

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  1. Hong Hu
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  2. Xi Bai
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  3. Assar Ali Shah
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  4. Sifa Dai
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  5. Like Wang
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  7. Chuanyan Che
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Correspondence to Sifa Dai.

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Hu, H., Bai, X., Shah, A.A. et al. Interactive effects of glutamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid on growth performance and skeletal muscle amino acid metabolism of 22–42-day-old broilers exposed to hot environment. Int J Biometeorol 60, 907–915 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-015-1084-9

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