The effects of diets enriched in omega-3 fatty acids on carcass characteristics and the fatty acid profile of intramuscular and subcutaneous fat in pigs

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the concentration of C18:3 n-3 and the total concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and n-3 PUFA in the diet on the performance of pigs, carcass characteristics, and fatty acid profile of intramuscular fat of Musculus longissimus dorsi (MLD) and subcutaneous tissue (ST) fat. Twenty-four crossbred pigs ♂Duroc x ♀(Polish Large White x Danish Landrace) were divided into 3 groups (A, B, and C) and from 60 to 105 kg body weight (BW) were fed isoenergetic (average 13.5 ME MJ . kg -1 ) and isolysinic (average 7.4 g . kg -1 standardized ileal digestible lysine) diets in which 10% of the metabolizable energy had been replaced by fat mixtures totaling 3.5% per kg diet. Diet A contained 1% rapeseed oil, 2% fish oil, and 0.5% lard; diet B contained 2.5% rapeseed oil and 1% linseed oil; and diet C contained 2.5% linseed oil and 1% fish oil. The diets had similar amounts of C18:2 n-6, but differed in the amounts of C18:3 n-3 (ALA), 20:5 n-3 (EPA), and 22:6 n-3 (DHA).Fat mixtures in the diet did not influence growth, carcass performance, lipid or fatty acid concentrations in the tissues of the pigs, but changed their PUFA concentration. ST fat compared with MLD fat had a higher (P<0.01) ratio of both PUFA/SFA (0.61 and 0.38 vs 0.74 and 0.32 vs 0.77 and 0.41, respectively, in groups A, B, and C) and PUFA n-6/n-3 PUFA (9.0 and 4.45 vs 6.18 and 3.82 vs 3.99 and 3.51, respectively, in groups A, B and C). Meat and fat from pigs of group C had PUFA/SFA and PUFA n-6/n-3 PUFA values consistent with WHO recommendations. Thus, it can be concluded that supplementation of the diet for pigs with a mixture of linseed oil and fish oil makes it possible to obtain good quality pork with health-promoting properties.

Tissue fatty acid deposition, plasma lipid and cytokine profile in pigs fed a diet with fish oil or palm oil

“…Regarding PUFA deposition, it is interesting that Wojtasik et al (2012), when fattening pigs with a diet containing 2.5% of linseed oil + 1% of fish oil, reported higher PUFA/SFA ratio in a subcutaneous fat than in a muscle tissue (m. longissimus dorsi), which is contrary to our finding: the PUFA/SFA ratio was 0.58 in the VAT and 0.70 in the muscle tissue (m. quadriceps femoris) in the present experiment.…”

“…PUFA n-6/n-3 ratio established in the present experiment (5.6 in the muscle tissue, 4.2 in the VAT) is within the range of the results of the recent similar experiments in pigs fed diets containing fish oil: 6.39 in the outer shoulder fat layer (Hallenstvedt et al 2012), and 3.57 and 3.11 in the muscle (m. triceps brachii) and backfat, respectively (Lisiak et al 2013), or 3.51 and 3.99 in the muscle tissue (m. longissimus dorsi) and subcutaneous fat, respectively (Wojtasik et al 2012). However, in the two last-mentioned experiments reporting lower PUFA n-6/n-3 ratios (Wojtasik et al 2012;Lisiak et al 2013), in addition to fish oil the authors used also linseed oil, which has a very high content of α-linolenic acid; though a conversion efficiency of dietary ALA to the tissue LC-PUFA n-3 is very low (Komprda et al 2013), ALA itself is efficiently transported from a diet to the animal (pig) tissues (Skiba et al 2015) and therefore substantially decreases the total PUFA n-6/n-3 ratio.…”

The relationship between blood lipid indicators and carcass traits and with the concentration of omega-3 fatty acids in the <i>longissimus dorsi</i> muscle of growing pigs

“…Similar findings were presented by Duran-Montgé et al (2010). Some researchers (Nguyen et al, 2003a;Kloareg et al, 2007;Duran-Montgé et al, 2010;Raj et al, 2010;Wojtasik et al, 2012), however, pointed to a possibility of differences between intramuscular (e.g., in MLD) and subcutaneous fat in terms of the intensity with which their EPA, DPA and DHA contents increased, even though the concentrations of linoleic and linolenic acids were significantly higher in the subcutaneous than in intramuscular fat. Tissue differences in the content of linoleic and linolenic acids can be explained by the different levels of incorporation of these fatty acids into them.…”

“…Admittedly, the muscle of pigs of the control group had less intramuscular fat than the experimental pigs, but this difference was insignificant. In contrast, Nguyen et al (2003a) and Wojtasik et al (2012) found no differences in the intramuscular fat of the MLD in animals fed similarly as ours.…”

“…Other authors propose improving the health value of meat by changing the fatty acid profile of pig fat depots. An effective method of achieving this, thereby modifying the human diet, is changing the diet for pigs (Nguyen et al, 2003a;Raj et al, 2010;Kouba and Sellier, 2011;Wojtasik et al, 2012).…”