Influence of acorn intake on blood lipid profile and longisimus muscle characteristics of Black Slavonian pig

Abstract

The beneficial effect of acorn on blood lipid level could be linked with presence of both high tannin content (70.10 g/kg DM) and high amounts of unsaturated fatty acids (more than 80%) such as linoleic (43.38%), oleic (30.52%) and alpha linolenic (4.58%) acid. In this study the influence of ad libitum acorn intake on blood lipid profile and longissimus muscle (MLD) composition of Black Slavonian pig were investigated and compared with the effects of commercial corn based diet. Acorn consumption in last three weeks of fattening period had a decreasing effect on triglyceride and total cholesterol concentration in blood without adverse effect on liver function. Compared with the intake of corn based diet, the intake of acorn resulted in 11% (0.22 mmol/l) lower total cholesterol (P < 0.05) concentration and 48% lower (0.20 mmol/l) triglycerides concentration (P < 0.01). In addition, there was no observed statistically significant differences (P > 0.05) among finishing diets for any histochemical characteristics, except for diameter of intermediate fast-twitch oxidative-glycolytic (FOG) fiber types (58.10 μm and 51.67 μm in acorn and corn based fed pigs, respectively; P < 0.01). The trend toward lower proportion (10.80 vs. 12.36%) and smaller diameter (59.36 vs. 64.57%) of red slow-twitch oxidative (SO) fiber types (P < 0.08) was observed in acorn than in corn-based fed pigs.