Lipid sources influence on healthfull indexes of lamb meat

The research is intended for evaluating the influence of different lipid sources in lambs ration on health index of muscle lipids, to the purpose of human well being. 18 male lambs Gentile di Puglia were weaned at 40 days of age, divided into three homogeneous groups and fed with: concentrated feed (C); replacement of 1.5% of feed with lyophilized algae (A); replacement of 5% of the feed with camelina sativa seeds (CS). The diets were isoenergetic and isoproteic and the food was given ad libitum. The lambs were slaughtered at 70 days of age and the fatty acid profile was determined on intramuscular fat of Longissimus lumborum muscle by gas chromatography and polyunsaturated fatty acids PUFA)/saturated fatty acids (SFA) ratio, n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio, plasma cholesterol lowering (PCL)/plasma cholesterol elevating (PCE) ratio, atherogenicity index (AI) and thrombogenicity index (TI) were also calculated. The fatty acids values were expressed as percentage (wt/wt) of total fatty acid methyl esters. The data were subjected to statistical analysis, using the SAS procedure. The A group, compared to C and CS groups, increased the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) content in the lipids muscle (0.72 vs. 0.32 %; P<0.05) and decreased the n-6/n-3 ratio (2.63 vs. 3.74 - 3.87; P<0.05). The CS group compared to the other two groups, showed a higher unsaturated fatty acid (UFA); 56.16 vs. 51.82 - 52.13; P<0.01) proportion, and a better PCL/PCE ratio (1.30 vs. 1.12 - 1.09; P<0.05); also those, compared to subjects receiving the alga showed a better atherogenicity index (0.6 5 vs. 0.77 - 0.78; P<0.05). The thrombogenicity index resulted lower and, therefore, better for the CS group compared to A group (1.17 vs. 1.31; P<0.05) and, especially, with respect to C group (1.17 vs. 1.39; P<0.01). In addition, camelina sativa, compared to algae diet, increased the essential linolenic fatty acid proportion (1.06 vs. 0.82%; P<0.05). In conclusion, the algae diet enriched meat lipids with DHA and provided better value for n-6/n-3 ratio, while the camelina sativa diet, conditioned the best AI and TI. Further research is needed in order to optimize the percentage of integration of lipid sources and to assess the usefulness of their association also with other sources.