The interest in biodiesel production from oil-bearing seeds rather than soybean necessitates the scientific validation of other good quality protein sources that could substitute soybean meal in animal diets, particularly, broiler chickens where soybean meal constitutes a large portion of their diet. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of sun-dried Azolla leaf meal (ALM) as an unconventional dietary protein source in broiler chicken diet on growth performance, meat quality, skeletal muscle cell growth and protein synthesis through regulation of ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6 kinase α). A total of 120 male Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomly allocated to three dietary treatments. Each treatment had four cages (i.e. replicates) with 10 birds/cage. The control group was fed with a corn–soy-based diet, the AZ5 group was supplemented with 5% ALM and the AZ10 group was supplemented with 10% ALM for 37 days. A 5-day trial was also conducted to measure the apparent nutrient digestibility. Growth performance parameters were measured weekly. At the end of the experiment, 12 birds from each group (3/cage) were euthanized and used for samplings. Inclusion of ALM tended to improve BW gain (P = 0.06) and increased feed intake (P < 0.01). Additionally, ALM decreased the percentage of breast meat cooking loss linearly (P < 0.01). In addition, ALM at a dose of 5% increased the production of propionate in the cecum (P = 0.01). Activation of breast muscle p70S6 kinase was higher when ALM was included in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.01). The inclusion of ALM increased breast meat redness (P < 0.01); however, the lightness was within the normal range in all groups. Findings from our study suggest that ALM could be included in a broiler chicken diet up to 5% without any major negative effect on meat quality or performance, and it regulates muscle protein synthesis through activation of mammalian target of rapamycin/6S kinase signaling.

对从含油种子而不是大豆生产生物柴油的兴趣需要对其他优质蛋白质来源进行科学验证，这些蛋白质来源可以替代动物饮食中的豆粕，特别是豆粕占其饮食大部分的肉鸡。因此，本研究旨在调查晒干满江红叶粉（ALM）的效果。作为肉鸡日粮中非常规的日粮蛋白质来源，通过调节核糖体蛋白 S6 激酶（p70S6 激酶 α）对生长性能、肉质、骨骼肌细胞生长和蛋白质合成产生影响。总共 120 只雄性罗斯 308 肉鸡被随机分配到三个饮食处理组。每个处理有四个笼子（即重复），每笼10只鸡。对照组饲喂以玉米大豆为主的日粮，AZ5组补充 5% ALM，AZ10组补充 10% ALM 37 天。还进行了为期 5 天的试验以测量表观养分消化率。每周测量生长性能参数。实验结束时，每组 12 只鸡（3 只/笼）被安乐死并用于取样。加入 ALM 倾向于提高体重（P = 0.06）和增加采食量（P < 0.01）。此外，ALM 线性降低了胸肉烹饪损失的百分比（P <0.01）。此外，5% 剂量的 ALM 增加了盲肠中丙酸盐的产生 ( P = 0.01)。当以剂量依赖性方式加入 ALM 时，胸肌 p70S6 激酶的激活更高（P< 0.01)。ALM 的加入增加了胸肉发红（P < 0.01）；然而，所有组的亮度都在正常范围内。我们的研究结果表明，ALM 可以包含在肉鸡日粮中高达 5%，而不会对肉质或性能产生任何重大负面影响，它通过激活哺乳动物雷帕霉素/6S 激酶信号靶标来调节肌肉蛋白质合成。