Effects of high-energy diet on growth performance and fat metabolism in meat rabbits

QIN Guangli; LIU Rui; TANG Haojia; LI Fuchang

doi:10.13557/j.cnki.issn1002-2813.2025.16.011

Abstract：The study aimed to investigate the effects of a high-energy diet on the growth performance and fat metabolism in meat rabbits.A toatl of 96 healthy weaned Ira meat rabbits were randomly divided into two groups,with 48 replicates per group and one rabbit per replicate.The control group was fed a diet with of 10.25 MJ/kg of digestible energy,while the high-energy diet group was fed a diet with of 10.75 MJ/kg of digestible energy.The pre-test period was seven days,and the formal test period was 28 days.The results showed that compared with the control group,high-energy diet was significantly reduced average daily feed intake of meat rabbits(P＜0.05),significantly increased crude fat apparent digestibility of meat rabbits(P＜0.05).High-energy diet were significantly increased scapular fat weight,perirenal fat weight,liver weight,scapular fat deposition rate,perirenal fat deposition rate,and liver index of meat rabbits(P＜0.05).High-energy diet were significantly increased the triglyceride,total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein concentrations in meat rabbit serum(P＜0.05),significantly up-regulation expression of fatty acid synthase and acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase genes in the liver(P＜0.05),and significantly down-regulation expression of hormone-sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase genes(P＜0.05).The study shows that feeding a high-energy diet can reduce the average daily feed intake of meat rabbits,improve the apparent digestibility of crude fat and the deposition of body fat,promote the synthesis process of fatty acids in the liver of meat rabbits and reduce the process of lipid breakdown,leading to an increase in liver weight.