CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACID AND OTHER C 18 FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF MUSCLE AND ADIPOSE TISSUES IN LAMBS FED ON DIETS CONTAINING VEGETABLE OIL SUPPLEMENTATIONS OR GRASS SILAGE

An experiment was performed to study the effect of different vegetable oils containing high proportions of PUFA (5% soybean oil, SBO; and sunflower oil, SFO; respectively, in the DM of concentrate) or grass silage (150 g DM/d/animal, GSL) on the level of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers and other C18 fatty acids in muscle and adipose tissues of growing lambs. Control animals were fed on the same diet as SBO or SFO groups; however, instead of vegetable oils hydrogenated palm oil containing low level of PUFA was applied. In both muscle and adipose samples tested c-9, t-11 C18: 2 showed the highest levels among the CLA isomers, however, t-10, c-12 CLA could also be measured in lower proportions. Considering vegetable oil supplementations, only SBO resulted in a significantly higher level of c-9, t-11 CLA in the triceps brachii muscle as compared to the control. Such a difference could not be detected in either the gracilis muscle or in the adipose tissue samples. However, lambs fed on the GSL diet had significantly higher c-9, t-11 CLA levels in both the triceps and gracilis muscles and lower proportion of t-10, c-12 CLA in the adipose than those fed on the control, SBO and SFO diets, respectively. Concerning C18 fatty acids other than CLA, SFO lambs showed significantly higher proportions of C18: 1n-9 than those of control animals in both muscles and perirenal fat tested. However, level of C18: 0 in the adipose tissue of GSL lambs was significantly lower than that of the animals fed both control or vegetable oil supplemented diets. Results of this experiments show that different dietary fatty acid sources have various potential to increase CLA contents in the meat of lambs. In addition to vegetable oils rich in PUFA, grass silage may be good dietary source for nutritional manipulation of the fatty acid composition of lamb meat.