Perspectives approaches using dietary glutamine and L-carnitine toward enhancement of reproductive performance of breeding pigeons and coordination of Genes controlling nutrients transport, lipogenesis and myogenesis in hatched squabs

Large-scale production of squabs necessitates good planning of nutritional regimen comprising novel feed additives that boost their production. Herein, the combined impact of dietary glutamine and L-carnitine was evaluated on breeding pigeons’ reproductive performance and squab’s productive performance, profitability, antioxidants and quantifying expression of myogenic, nutrient transporters and lipogenesis related genes. Six-month-old Baladi pigeons (100 pairs) were divided into four treatments, control, Glutamine, L-carnitine and Glut@L-carnitine groups which were fed basal diet fortified with 5 gm/kg diet Glutamine, 60 mg kg diet L-carnitine or combined Glutamine and L-carnitine with the same levels. The result indicated an improvement of reproductive performance of breeder pigeons expressed by shorten egg cycle and increase in eggs number, fertility, hatchability and number of produced squabs fed on a combination of Glut@L-carnitine. Weight gain of squabs over 28-day was improved in glutamine and Glut@L-carnitine treatment (increased by 8 and 12 %, respectively, vs control). Yield of breast muscles was maximized in hatched squabs received Glut@L-carnitine (increased by 22.7 % vs control). Parallel to reduction in abdominal fat %, genes expression of regulating lipogenesis were upregulated in both L-carnitine and Glut@L-carnitine groups. Glut@L-carnitine fortified group showed higher total antioxidant capacity and SOD with declining of MDA as a lipid peroxidation biomarker. The expression of mRNA of nutrient transporters (GLUT-1 SGLT1, B0AT1, FABP, EAAT3, and PEPT-1), myogenic factors as MyoG, MyF6, MyoD1 and IGF-1 reached their peak in Glut@L-carnitine group. Our findings implied that Glut@L-carnitine had superior impact on reproductive performance of breeding pigeons and productive performance of their squabs.