Adaptation of muscle energy metabolism in growing pigs and relationships with meat quality

This review aims at presenting the metabolic adaptations of growing pigs to various internal or external (environmental) factors, focusing on metabolic pathways of muscle tissue and their consequences on various dimensions of meat quality and efficiency of pork production. At the muscle level, regulation of homeostasis by the enzymatic complex AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is described. AMPK activity, considered as an energy sensor involved in the stimulation of glucidic and glycolytic pathways and in the regulation of oxidative metabolism, could thus be a marker of the muscle in vivo and post-mortem adaptive response. This review highlights the complex and multifactorial relationships between muscle characteristics, efficiency of pork production and meat quality traits. Metabolic efficiency and meat quality depends, at the animal level, on the type of muscle, its metabolic changes during growth and the metabolic pathways involved in response to energy disturbance.