Vitamin E and fatty acid content of lamb meat from perennial pasture or annual pasture systems with supplements

Abstract

The present study investigated the effect of a perennial lucerne and phalaris pasture, or annual pasture with lucerne hay and a range of supplements provided as pellets (700 g/day) on Vitamin E and fatty acid content of skeletal muscle and oxidative stability of lamb meat post-farm gate. Treatments were lambs grazing perennial pasture only (PP); lambs grazing annual pasture with lucerne hay and oat grain pellet supplement (AP); AP with cracked flaxseed (AP+FS); and AP with flaxmeal (AP+FM). After 7 weeks of feeding, lambs were slaughtered after an overnight fast. At 24 h post-slaughter, samples of muscle longissimus lumborum (LL) were collected for determination of fatty acid profile and antioxidant status, as measured by Vitamin E content. Samples were also collected for retail colour assessment of fresh meat at 24 h, 48 h, 72 h and 96 h of post-slaughter. Vitamin E content of the LL from lambs grazing PP was higher (5.9 v. 3.4 mg α-tocopherol/kg, P < 0.01) than that of lambs grazing other treatments. Long-chain n-3 and total n-3 fatty acid contents in the muscle were similar among treatment groups and adequate to claim as a source of n-3. Inclusion of oat grain at 245 g (AP) or at 175 g with flaxseed (AP+FS) or 175 g with flaxmeal (AP+FM) per day in the diet of lambs increased the linoleic acid content (P < 0.05) and the ratio of n-6 : n-3 (P < 0.007) in the LL, compared with lambs grazing PP. Oxidative stability of fresh meat evaluated by retail shelf life (retention of redness) and formation of lipid oxidative substance showed no differences among treatment groups and, as indicated by redness (a*-value) over a 96-h display, all values were within the range (>9.5) for quality meat over the time frame used in the present study. The results provided some evidence that inclusion of PP in the diets of lambs during dry seasons (late summer to autumn) is an effective tool of improving the Vitamin E content of muscle tissues at slaughter.

Meat quality, fatty acids, volatile compounds, and antioxidant properties of lambs fed pasture versus mixed diet

“…Thus, mixed diets of lamb meat should deposit more saturated fatty acids than grazed lamb meat. The PUFA content in muscle from the PG group was higher than that in muscle from the M group, which may be due to the nature of the forage (Dierking, Kallenbach, & Grün, ; Lourenco, Van, Vlaeminck, De, & Fievez, ; Ponnampalam, Burnett, Norng, Warner, & Jacobs, ). Pastures are naturally high in PUFAs, especially linolenic acid.…”

“…Moreover, active ingredients (condensed tannins) in forage effectively reduce the activity of ruminal bacterial and inhibit rumen biohydrogenation, which increases the proportion of PUFAs in animal tissues (Hajji et al, ). Tannins can cause a reduction in Butyrivibrio proteoclasticus , which convert vaccenic acid to stearic acid, thereby potentially resulting in higher levels of PUFAs in the muscle of PG lambs (Faria et al, ; Lobón et al, ; Ponnampalam et al, ).…”

Prediction of intramuscular fat content and major fatty acid groups of lamb M. longissimus lumborum using Raman spectroscopy

“…However, it must be stressed that in order to obtain data which reflects the variability of IMF levels and FA composition of commercially produced lamb in Australia, samples in this study were of unknown background, age and sex that were sampled at a commercial abattoir. As previous studies have demonstrated the impact of breed (Demirel, Ozpinar, Nazli, & Keser, 2006), genetics , diet (Ponnampalam, Burnett, Norng, Warner, & Jacobs, 2012), production system (Ponnampalam, Butler, Jacob, et al, 2014), muscle sampled (Ponnampalam et al, 2010), sample location (Wood et al, 2008), age (Oriani et al, 2005) gender, carcase weight and fat score (Kosulwat, Greenfield, & James, 2003) on FA composition it is not useful to directly compare the FA composition found in the current study with established literature where these factors have been controlled. 1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 7.5 Fatty acids (mg/ 100 g meat) Intramuscular fat (g/ 100 g meat) Fig.…”

Performance, carcass traits, muscle fatty acid composition and meat sensory properties of male Mahabadi goat kids fed palm oil, soybean oil or fish oil

“…However, it is noteworthy that there was a reduction in 18:3 n-3 in lambs in response to the addition of soybean oil compared with control diets containing lucerne hay or ground lucerne pellet (Bessa et al, 2005). Recently Ponnampalam, Burnett, Norng, Warner, and Jacobs (2012) have indicated that adding quality lucerne hay in concentrate diets can be a nutritional strategy to lift the antioxidant potential and omega-3 fatty acid status of meat. Others have reported the proportion of 18:3 n-3 in heifers was increased Beaulieu, Drackley, and Merchen (2002) when compared between diets with and without soybean oil.…”