A systematic evaluation of vegetable oils in functional duck meat production: impacts on fatty acid composition, antioxidant status, and molecular physiology

This study investigated the effects of different oil sources on breast muscle fatty acid composition, antioxidant status, gene expression, and metabolomic profiles in Pekin ducks, and to compare their regulatory roles in breast muscle lipid metabolism and nutritional quality. A total of 144 one-day-old Pekin ducks were allotted to three groups and fed three experimental diets with soybean oil (SO), flaxseed oil (FO), and rubber seed oil (RSO) for 6 weeks. The results showed that both FO and RSO promoted the enrichment of n-3 PUFAs and reduced the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio in breast muscle of Pekin ducks. Furthermore, compared with SO and FO, RSO significantly decreased breast muscle triglyceride (TG) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, while enhancing the activities of catalase (CAT) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) (P < 0.05), indicating its superior antioxidant capacity. Gene expression analysis revealed that both RSO and FO significantly upregulated the expression of ACACA and APOA1 in the breast muscle (P < 0.05). Specifically, RSO supplementation significantly increased the expression of genes related to lipid transport (CD36), lipolysis (PNPLA2), and fatty acid oxidation (CPT2) (P < 0.05). Breast muscle metabolomics confirmed that both RSO and FO increased DPA, DHA, and spermidine, while RSO alone reduced oxidized glutathione, further confirming its superior antioxidant and lipid-regulating effects. Collectively, these findings demonstrated that RSO, as an unsaturated oil, can effectively regulate breast muscle lipid metabolism by promoting lipolysis and enhancing antioxidant capacity, thereby improving the nutritional quality of duck meat.