Effect of dietary phosphorus levels on meat quality and lipid metabolism in broiler chickens

• Meat quality and enzyme activities were determined in chickens.
• Dietary P levels influenced meat quality and expression of indicators on lipid metabolism of broilers.
• Meat quality of broiler chickens is decreased compared to normal group.
• Provide useful information for improvement of the meat quality.

To analyze the influence of dietary phosphorus (P) levels on meat quality and lipid metabolism, a 42-day feeding experiment (P deficient group; normal group; high P level groups of H1 and H2, respectively) using 100 one-day-old broilers was conducted. Results demonstrated that the quality of broiler chicken meat in deficient or high P groups decreased relative to the normal group. High P diets resulted in increased lightness, redness values, shear forces and decreased fatty acid contents and intramuscular fat content in breast meat (p < 0.01). Compared with normal group, lower malic enzyme activity, higher fatty acid synthase and AMP-activated protein kinase activities were observed in the treatment groups (p < 0.05). Chickens fed with normal diets had the lowest serum total cholesterol and triglyceride levels which differed from that of other treatments (p < 0.05). High-P diets significantly decreased the lipid accumulation in the liver (p < 0.01), whereas phosphorus levels in breast meat increased significantly (p < 0.01). It can be concluded that deficient or higher P levels could affect meat quality and expression of indicators on lipid metabolism of broiler chickens.