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Conference abstract2004

Fatty acid composition in meat from grazing reindeer versus reindeer fed two different pelleted feeds

Eva, Wiklund; Sampels, Sabine; Pickova, Jana

Abstract

From earlier studies it is known that there are differences in fatty acid (FA) composition of meat from grazing and pellet fed ruminants. In the rumen microorganisms will hydrogenate C18 unsaturated FA deriving from oils. Similar results have been found in reindeer (Wiklund et al., 2001), where especially the amount of n-3 was lower in the meat from pellet fed compared with grazing animals. By adding whole or crushed seeds instead of oil to feed mixtures this effect can be suppressed, as FA are then protected by cell walls. n-3 PUFA play an important role in living organisms; they are precursors for the synthesis of prostaglandin hormones, important for several body functions. Our aim was to explore the possibility to keep the FA composition in the meat close to natural, by changing the FA composition of the pellets. The study was performed on one group of animals grazing and two groups fed pellets, one conventional pellets and the other pellets modified with regard to n-6/n-3 ratio. In order to increase the amount of n-3 in the feed, linseed cake was added. The ratio n-6/n-3 in the n-3 modified feed was 2.6 compared with 4.3 in the normal pellets. The FA composition of different lichens, the main feed of reindeer before slaughter was also analyzed. Meat samples were taken from M. longissimus dorsi 45 min after slaughter and stored in –80 ºC until analysis. FA composition of animals fed conventional pellets had a higher ratio of n-6/n-3 then the grazing animals, while this ratio in the polar lipid (PL) fraction of the animals fed the n-3 modified pellets, was comparable to the PL of the grazing reindeer. The saturated FA and 18:3n-3 in the PL fraction were higher, while the long chain n-3 FA were lower in the animals fed the n-3 modified pellets compared to the grazing ones, probably due to the different amount of these FA in the pellets compared to the lichens. We conclude that it is possible to preserve a natural n-6/n-3 ratio in reindeer meat by adding linseed cake to the pellets and the FA composition in general depends on the FA composition of the fat sources included in the pellets

Published in

Proceedings of the 3rd Euro Fed Lipid Congress. 5th-8th September 2004. Edinburgh , UK
2004, Publisher: EuroFed Lipid

Conference

Euro Fed Lipid Congress