Dietary supplementation with putrescine improves meat quality, enhances intestinal development, and modulates the intestinal microbiota in Wenchang chickens

This study investigated the effects of putrescine on meat quality of broilers. A total of 480 eighty-day-old female chickens were randomly divided into four experimental groups, with 8 replicates per group and 15 broilers per replicate. The chickens were fed a basal diet supplementation with 0% (Con group), 100 mg/kg (PUT1 group), 300 mg/kg (PUT2 group), and 500 mg/kg (PUT3 group) putrescine hydrochloride, respectively. The results showed that the muscle fiber size of thigh muscle was higher in the PUT2 and PUT3 groups than in the Con group. Putrescine supplementation increased (P < 0.05) the content of nervonic acid and decreased (P < 0.05) the ratio of n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in thigh muscle. Moreover, chickens in the PUT2 group exhibited the highest (P < 0.05) concentrations of sodium, potassium, and magnesium in thigh muscle. In conclusion, these results indicated that dietary supplementation with 300 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg putrescine improves the meat quality by inducing mineral and nervonic acid deposition in muscle.