Adaptive changes in the ornithine cycle and amino acid synthesis in sheep liver with different meat productivity

Abstract

The aim of the research was to study the ornithine cycle as the process of fixing ammonia and the formation of urea in the body of highly productive animals. In our experiments, we used a protein-deficient diet and urea as a nitrogen substitute for nitrogen-containing materials in the diet to reveal the mechanism of action of urea on animals, in particular on the biochemical processes of the ornithine cycle. There are some differences between Bukovinian sheep of the Askanian meat-wool breed and outbreds in terms of the ability to build muscle tissue. Our study reveals that the slaughter yield and the average daily gain consumption of Bukovinian-type meat of the Askanian meat-wool breed were higher in summer and in autumn, compare with purebred sheep. Sheep of the Bukovynian type of Askanian meat-wool breed have the intensity of enzymatic formation of urea in liver homogenates that is much higher in all experiments than in outbred sheep. A sharp drop in the activity of all stages of urea formation and glutamic acid synthesis in liver homogenates and significantly weakened urea formation was found in all experiments of the fourth series in comparison with the experiments in the third series. Increased muscle growth, high nitrogen deposition, and a much lower percentage of urinary excretion of ammonia and urea nitrogen, as well as higher activity of enzymes of the ornithine cycle and glutamic acid synthesis in the Bukovinian sheep type of Askanian meat-wool breed compared to outbreeds allow concluding that ammonia and urea in highly productive animals act less as finishing products of nitrogen metabolism than in low-productive animals.