Dietary supplementation of curcumin improves growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality in growing-finishing pigs

This study aimed to explore the effect of supplementation of finishing pigs with dietary curcumin (CUR) on the growth performance and meat quality. A total of 120 pigs (26.53 ± 6.12 kg) were randomly assigned to five treatments with 6 replicate pens per treatment (4 pigs per pen). Pigs were fed with basal diet or basal diet supplemented with different doses of CUR (100, 200, 300, and 400 mg/kg). The trial lasted for 114 days,and pigs from the control and optimal-dose groups (based on growth performance) were picked for blood and tissue collection. Results showed that CUR supplementation significantly decreased the feed-to-gain ratio (F:G) ( P < 0.05), and 200 mg/kg CUR was identified as the optimal supplementation level for improving growth performance. Moreover, CUR not only elevated serum concentrations of immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG, and IgM), but also significantly decreased the serum concentrations of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-6) ( P < 0.05). In terms of carcass traits, CUR increased dressing percentage, loin eye area and average backfat thickness ( P < 0.05). Meat quality was improved, as evidenced by higher L* 24h and a* 45min values ( P < 0.05). At the molecular level, CUR upregulated the expression of MYH7 , MYH2 , GLUT4 and GCK in muscle, while downregulating MYH4 and ACC expression ( P < 0.05). Additionally, dietary CUR supplementation also elevated the GLUT4 , GCK and HSL expression in liver ( P < 0.05). These findings suggest that CUR enhances carcass characteristics and meat quality in growing-finishing pigs by boosting antioxidant capacity, modulating muscle fiber type distribution, and regulating glycolipid metabolism in muscle and liver.