Effects of agaricus blazei murill polysaccharide on growth performance, slaughter performance and meat quality of Hu sheep

The experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary Agaricus blazei polysaccharide on growth performance, slaughter performance and meat quality of Hu sheep. Forty 1.5-month-old male Hu lambs with similar body weight and good homogeneity were randomly divided into two groups, the control group and the Agaricus blazei polysaccharide group. The control group was fed a basal diet, and the Agaricus blazei polysaccharide group was fed a basal diet supplemented with 2 g·kg⁻¹ Agaricus blazei polysaccharide (based on air drying). The experiment lasted for 160 days, including a pre-feeding period of 10 days and a trial period of 150 days. During the trial, the sheep growth performances at 10 different growth stages (15 d as a stage) were measured. At the end of test, six sheep were chosen randomly to be slaughtered to determine the slaughter performance. The results showed that the Hu sheep body height of Agaricus blazei polysaccharide group were significantly higher than that of control group (P < 0.05). At 60～75 d, the chest circumference of Agaricus blazei polysaccharide group was significantly higher than that of control group (P < 0.01), but there were no significant differences in carcass weight and slaughter rate between two groups (P > 0.05). After slaughtering, the water loss rate of the Agaricus blazei polysaccharide group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05), while the muscle yellowness (b*) was significantly lower than that of the control group at 24 h (P < 0.05). A total of 17 kinds of amino acids were detected in the longissimus dorsi muscle, including 7 kinds of essential amino acid (EAA) and 10 kinds of nonessential amino acid (NEAA) Glycine in Agaricus blazei polysaccharide group was significantly higher than that in control group (P < 0.05). Cysteine was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in other amino acids between two groups (P > 0.05). A total of 37 fatty acids were detected in the longissimus dorsi, 17 saturated fatty acid (SFA), 9 monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and 11 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The contents of palmitoleic acid, ricinoleic acid, eicosadienoic acid, Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in Agaricus blazei polysaccharide group were significantly higher than those in control group, and the content of linoleic acid was significantly lower than that in control group (P < 0.05). Comprehensive analysis showed that under the conditions of this experiment, 2 g·kg⁻¹ Agaricus blazei polysaccharide in diet could promote Hu sheep growth and development, improve the slaughter performance and meat quality to a certain extent.