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Yuanxin Miao [1; 2; 3] and Fathia Soudy [1; 2] and Zhong Xu [1; 2] and Mingxing Liao [1; 2; 4] and Shuhong Zhao [1; 2] and Xinyun Li [1; 2]

Academic Editor: Rituraj Purohit

1, Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education and Key Laboratory of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China, hzau.edu.cn

2, The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Wuhan 430070, China

3, Jingchu University of Technology, Jingmen 448000, China, at0086.com

4, Jingmen Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau, Jingmen 448000, China

Received May 1, 2017; Accepted Jun 21, 2017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction

Feed efficiency (FE) is an important trait in livestock. In pigs, feed takes more than 60% of the total costs. Improvement of FE is one of the most important approaches for reducing the productive cost of livestock. At present, the assessment of FE is by using two highly correlated indicators: FCR (feed conversion ratio) and RFI (residual feed intake) [1, 2], which lower FCR, and RFI means better FE [3–5].

Mice were widely used as animal model in energy metabolism, feed intake, and FE studies [6–8]. Recent study showed that oxygen consumption was negatively associated with FE of mice. Also, the higher oxygen consumption mice have higher mitochondrial activity and energy expenditure than lower oxygen consumption mice [9, 10]. These results indicated that energy metabolism was negatively related to FE in mice. Similarly, the energy metabolism pathway in the skeletal muscle tissue was found negatively related to FE in pigs [11, 12]. Further, lots of studies confirmed that the hypothalamus can regulate the food intake of mice [13–15]. The Grelin, Leptin, MC4R, NPY, and Agrp genes have been confirmed to participate in the regulation of feed intake in mice through hypothalamus neurons [16–18]. Orally administered tributyltin (TBT) can significantly increase the FE through inhibiting feed intake in mice [19]. In pigs, feed intake was also negatively related to FE and the MC4R has been confirmed as a candidate gene of FE in...
 
 
 
       
     
   
 
 
 
 

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