Effects of milk fat, unhydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils on fat metabolism of growing pigs: I. Growth, feed utilization and carcass quality in pigs fed different fats and oils

Authors

• Kaija Suomi Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, Tervamäentie 179, FIN-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Timo Alaviuhkola Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, Tervamäentie 179, FIN-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Jarmo Valaja Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, Tervamäentie 179, FIN-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Veikko Kankare Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Food Research Institute, FIN-31600 Jokioinen, Finland
• Asmo Kemppinen Department of Food Technology/Dairy Section, P. O. Box 27 (Viikki), FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72635

Abstract

Two trials were conducted to study the effects of different dietary fats on the performance, carcass quality and meat quality of 75 crossbred growing pigs. The experimental diets contained 14.3% butter oil (BO), low erucic acid rapeseed oil (RO), sunflower oil (SO) or partially hydrogenated sunflower oil (HSO). The cream (CR) content of the diets was 29.4%. The dietary fat addition comprised about 36% of the net energy content of the diets. The fatty acid composition of the dietary fats had a clear influence on the fatty acid composition of the adipose tissue of the pigs. Vegetable oils (RO and SO) increased the unsaturated fatty acid content of the adipose tissue and decreased the firmness of the backfat compared to the effects by milk fat (80, CR) (p<0.001). The correlation between linoleic acid content and firmness of back fat was significant (r=-0.83) (p<0.001). The trans fatty acid (C18:1) found in HSO seems to be incorporated intact into the fatty tissue of the pig to a large extent and a significant difference was found in the contents oftrans fatty acid C18:1 between the SO and HSO treatments (p<0.001). Significant differences were found in feed conversion efficiency, kg DM/kg gain, (p<0.05) and in the firmness of back fat (p<0.001) between the present vegetable oils (RO, SO, HSO) and the milk fat (BO, CR) dietary groups. Hydrogenated sunflower oil (HSO) increased the firmness of back fat compared to unhydrogenated sunflower oil (SO) (p<0.001), but in contrast, it significantly reduced daily gain and feed conversion efficiency (p<0.05). A vegetable oil addition of the level used in the present study is not recomended for pig diets because of the undesirable consistency of back fat.