Lamb meat quality and intramuscular fatty acid composition as affected by concentrates including different legume seeds

Abstract

The aim of this experiment was to study the effect of concentrates including legume seeds (Vicia faba var. minor or Pisum sativum) on lamb performances and meat quality, emphasizing the intramuscular fatty acid composition. Thirty lambs (14.5 +/- 3.45 kg live weight) were randomly assigned to three dietary treatments: i) group fed on concentrate including 400 g/kg of peas (PEA); ii) group fed on concentrate including 380 g/kg of faba bean (FB); iii) group fed on concentrate including 180 g/kg of soybean meal (SBM). Growth and slaughter performances were not affected by treatments as well as physical and proximate chemical meat characteristics. FB and SBM meat showed higher (P< 0.001) vaccenic acid levels compared to PEA meat. Oleic acid was higher (P< 0.05) in PEA meat compared to SBM meat while its level in FB meat was similar to counterparts. Linoleic acid levels tended to increase (P< 0.10) in SBM lambs compared with PEA animals. PEA group showed higher (P< 0.001) alpha-linolenic acid proportions compared with FB and SBM groups and a tendentially higher (P< 0.10) eicosapentaenoic acid content compared with SBM meat. As a result, total n-3 fatty acids were higher (P< 0.05) in PEA meat compared to SBM one while the proportions in FB meat were at intermediate level. These findings accounted for a lower and more favourable (P< 0.001) n-6/n-3 ratio in PEA group compared with counterparts. Peas based-concentrate seemed to be more effective than faba bean-or soybean meal-included concentrates to improve the acidic profile of meat leading to higher a-linolenic acid levels and a lower n-6/n-3 ratio

Legume grain-based supplements in dairy sheep diet: effects on milk yield, composition and fatty acid profile

“…With regard to FA composition (Table 1), linoleic acid (LA) (C18:2 n-6 c9, c12) was the predominant FA in each of the used legume grains, making up nearly 50% of total FA, followed by oleic acid (C18:1 c9) (OA), as also reported by other authors Lanza et al 2011;Renna et al 2012). However, as a result of the lipid content of chickpea, higher than that of faba bean and pea, the chickpea-based concentrate provided higher amounts of LA and OA, as well as total polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) and unsaturated FA than the other legume grain-based concentrates, approaching those of MCF, which showed the highest lipid percentage.…”

“…The protein source did not lead to differences in long chain omega-3 FA (Table 5), such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), or total omega-3 FA, whereas the ALA content tended to be highest in MCF milk, in line with the level of ALA in the MCF (Table 1). These results contradict other authors who observed, on lamb meat, positive effects of a pea diet in increasing the level of omega-3 FA (Lanza et al 2011;Scerra et al 2011), and an increase in DPA with a chickpea diet , whereas they are in accordance with Bonanno et al (2012) who did not find differences in omega-3 FA when compared meat fat from lambs fed diets based on chickpea, faba bean, pea or soybean. These discrepancies could be related to the different unsaturated FA composition of the control diet fed to lambs in those experiments.…”

“…These protein sources have no adverse effects on lamb growth rate or on carcass and meat characteristics, and are able to increase the amount of omega-3 fatty acids (FA) in the intramuscular fat Lanza et al 2011;Scerra et al 2011). When compared simultaneously, chickpea, faba bean, and pea were able to completely replace soybean concentrate, resulting in comparable growth rates, carcass characteristics, and meat quality of lambs slaughtered at 130 days of age (Bonanno et al 2012).…”

“…Studies on the use of legume grains as alternative protein sources for sheep have largely been related to meat production (Vasta et al 2008), and have shown partial or total replacement of soybean with chickpea (Hadjipanayiotou 2002;Christodoulou et al 2005), faba bean (Lanza et al 1999;Antongiovanni et al 2002;Lanza et al 2011), and pea (Lanza et al , 2011Loe et al 2004). These protein sources have no adverse effects on lamb growth rate or on carcass and meat characteristics, and are able to increase the amount of omega-3 fatty acids (FA) in the intramuscular fat Lanza et al 2011;Scerra et al 2011).…”

Performance, Carcass Traits and Meat Quality of Crossbred Lambs Fed Whole Cottonseed Levels

“…This possible similarity may be related to the similar ages of animals in this study, since the slaughter age could affect the colour of the lamb meat (Lanza et al, 2011).…”