Orange peel silage in lamb feeding improves meat fatty acid profile

Abstract

Considering its nutritional quality and low cost compared to traditional foods, the orange peel has been used to replace grains in ruminant diets. This research was developed to evaluate the fatty acid profile of meat from lambs finished with diets containing orange peel silage (OPS) in replacement of corn (0, 33, 66 and 100%). Twenty Santa Inês lambs (five replicates per treatment), approximately five months old and body weight of 25.37 ± 1.94 kg, were distributed in a completely randomized design and the data obtained compared by the Tukey test at 0.05 of significance. There was a linear increase in the concentration of fatty acid capric (P = 0.026) and a quadratic increase for palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, conjugated linoleic (CLA) and α-linolenic acid, saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, Σn-6, Σn-3 fatty acids and desirable fatty acids in the meat of lambs fed with OPS (P<0.05). The replacement of corn by OPS in 66% in the diet of finishing lambs improves the fatty acid profile of the meat.