Vicente Jimeno

FATTY ACID COMPOSITION AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWING LAMBS FED DIETS CONTAINING PALM OIL SUPPLEMENTS

Thirty 45-day-old male Ojalada lambs were used to investigate the effect of palm oil (as such or in the form of calcium soap) on carcass characteristics and fat composition. Dietary palm oil did not significantly affect dorsal fat thickness, carcass fatness or carcass conformation. The palm oil supplement did not affect C16:0 levels in intramuscular and subcutaneous fat, but did increase the percentage of C16:0 and reduce PUFA and MUFA content in internal fat depots. Supplementation with palm oil in the form of calcium soap did not cause significant differences in the composition of intramuscular fat. Subcutaneous and perirenal fat of lambs fed treatments including palm oil as such contained higher levels of some saturated fatty acids than that of those fed fat in the form of calcium soap. Mesenteric fat of lambs that received calcium soap had less % C18:1 and more % C18:3 than that of those given palm oil.

Animal performance and fatty acid composition of lambs fed with different vegetable oils.

Twenty-seven lambs were used to investigate the effects of the inclusion of 4% hydrogenated palm oil (HPO) or sunflower oil (SFO) in the concentrate on animal performance, carcass and meat quality and fat characteristics and fatty acid composition. Animals (16.2±0.27kg initial weight) were fed concentrate (Control, HPO or SFO) and barley straw ad libitum and slaughtered at 25kg. SFO lambs tended to eat less concentrate than HPO animals (P<0.10). Neither HPO nor SFO affected any of the carcass characteristics studied, meat pH and meat and fat colour (P>0.05). SFO decreased proportions of C16:0, C18:1 cis-11 and C18:3 (P<0.05) and increased C18:1 trans (P<0.001) and C18:2/C18:3 ratio (P<0.05). Atherogenicity index was lower (P<0.05) when SFO was included in the concentrate. HPO did not affected and SFO improved fatty acid composition of fattening lambs without affecting animal performance.