Fatty acids in intramuscular fat of Ile de France lambs in two different production systems

Abstract

Abstract. The fatty acid (FA) composition in the intramuscular fat (IMF) of the musculus longissimus dorsi (MLD) of Ile de France purebred lambs in two different production systems in Slovakia was evaluated using gas chromatography. In the first production system, lambs and ewes were assigned to pasture without access to concentrates (P). In the second system, lambs and ewes were confined indoors with hay/silage and access to concentrates (S). An analysis of variance with the following factors was employed: production system, sex, and production system–sex interactions. The proportions of arachidonic, eicosapentaeonic, docosapentaeonic, and docosahexaenoic FAs, i.e. long-chain polyunsaturated FA (PUFA), were significantly higher in P lambs (1.83, 0.82, 0.92, 0.29 g 100 g−1 FAME, respectively) than in S lambs (0.45, 0.14, 0.30, 0.09 g 100 g−1 FAME, respectively). The proportions of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), n-6 PUFA, n-3 PUFA, and essential FA (linoleic and α-linolenic) were also significantly higher in P lambs (2.10, 8.50, 4.55, and 8.80 g 100 g−1 FAME, respectively) than in S lambs (0.65, 3.27, 1.50, and 3.64 g 100 g−1 FAME, respectively). The proportions of palmitic acid and myristic acid as important individual saturated FAs (SFA) were significantly higher in S lambs (28.51 and 8.30 g 100 g−1 FAME, respectively) than in P lambs (21.80 and 5.63 g 100 g−1 FAME, respectively). The proportion of all SFAs was also significantly higher in S lambs (57.87 g 100 g−1 FAME) than in P lambs (48.70 g 100 g−1 FAME). From a nutrition and human health point of view (i.e. higher proportions of PUFA, CLA, and essential FAs and lower proportions of SFAs), meat from P lambs was found to be more favourable and would be more highly recommended for consumption.

Fatty acids, health lipid indices, and cholesterol content of sheep meat of three breeds from Moroccan pastures

“…The presence of tannins in acorns would improve the PUFA / SFA ratio by reducing ruminal bio-hydrogenation. The obtained results correspond to those obtained by several other authors who reported an increase in the PUFA / SFA ratio in free grazing (Wood et al, 2003;Margetín et al, 2018). Thus, the finishing phase of barley-based lambs influences the content of PUFAs.…”

“…Similar values have been reported by Berrighi et al (2017) in Reimbi lamb (crossbreed between BG breed and ODj breed) meats (8.4-12.68) and by Nasri et al (2011) and Vasta et al (2013) for meat of Barbarine breed (value around 7). However, the recorded values were lower than those reported by Blasco et al (2019) for Segureña lambs (15.32-15.47) and were higher than those found by Yousefi et al (2012) and Margetín et al (2018) for Chall and Île-de-France sheep breed. Similar results were reported by Keddam et al (2010) for n − 6 / n − 3 ratio of ODj breed reared in Algeria (8.97 for ODj with a barely diet and 7.37 for ODj with an oak acorn diet).…”

“…Regarding the sums of PUFAs n − 3, the results show a significant difference between the studied meats, where the higher value was recorded in BGA lambs (2.13 %) and the lower in ODj lambs (1.71 %). For BGA and ODj breeds, the obtained results of PUFAs are higher in comparison with those reported by Garcia et al (2008) for Patagonian (13.85 %) lambs and are lower than those reported by Margetín et al (2018) for Île-de-France (17.21 %) and by van Harten et al (2016) for Dorper lambs (16.93 %). Nevertheless, the recorded PUFA values in BGT and Ti lambs are higher than those reported by Margetín et al (2018) for Île-de-France (16.93 %) lambs and similar to the result obtained by van Harten et al (2016) for Merino (21.85 %) lambs and by Addis et al (2013) for Agnello di Sardegna (21.85 %) lambs.…”

“…However, our results show no difference between the studied meats in the percentage of stearic acid. The obtained results of SFAs are lower than those reported by Margetín et al (2018) in the meat of Île-de-France sheep breed and are comparable to those reported by Polidori et al (2017) in the meat of the Fabrianese breed. The SFAs recorded values in LL muscle of Ti and BGT comparable to those found by Garcia et al (2008) in the meat of Patagonian lamb.…”

“…Ruminant meat is characterized by its high content of SFA due to the ruminal biohydrogenation phenomenon (Ben Abdelmalek et al, 2020). However, several studies showed that it is possible to vary the FA composition by varying the diet and the rearing system (Wood et al, 2003;van Harten et al, 2016;Margetín et al, 2018;Belhaj et al, 2020). The differences in SFA content are more due to the rearing system than the difference in genotype.…”