Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate intake, performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of lambs fed finishing diets containing 0%, 7.5% and 15% safflower seeds (Carthamus tinctorius) as a replacement for corn and soybean meal. Thirty-six male lambs with mean bodyweight of 17.9 ± 1.8 kg were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: C0: no safflower seeds, C7.5: 7.5%safflower seeds in diet (DM basis), and C15: 15% safflower seeds in diet (DM basis). The lambs were fed in pens of two and thus there were six replicates per treatment. Performance and carcass characteristics were not affected by including safflower seeds in their diet. Animals fed 7.5% safflower seeds had greater dry matter intake. There was a linear effect of increasing the redness (a*) of meat with the amount of safflower, where a mean of 15.77 was found for lambs that received the C15 diet. With increasing levels of safflower, the concentration of fatty acids C14:0, C17:0, and C22:1 increased. However, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA, C18:2) was reduced in lambs fed C15. A concentration of 0.461 g/100 g meat was observed for animals that consumed C7.5. Thus, lambs fed a diet containing 7.5% safflower had the greatest dry matter intake, carcass fat, and concentration of conjugated linoleic acid in their meat, and enhanced meat colour.Key words: conjugated linoleic acid, human health, lipid supplementation, oilseeds
Highlights
The use of oilseeds in animal feed increases the energy density of the diets and prevents metabolic disturbances that are caused by an excess of non-fibre carbohydrates, rumen degradable starch
This reduction can be explained by the higher ether extract (EE) consumption (P
No differences were found in the Dry matter intake (DMI) lambs fed a diet containing 16.2% of safflower seed, when compared with lambs that were fed a diet without safflower
Summary
The use of oilseeds in animal feed increases the energy density of the diets and prevents metabolic disturbances that are caused by an excess of non-fibre carbohydrates, rumen degradable starch. Supplementation of oilseeds for sheep may contribute to an increase in unsaturated fatty acids in the meat (Bolte et al, 2002), providing beneficial effects on human health, such as prevention of obesity, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and modulation of the positive responses from the immune and inflammatory systems (Dilzer & Park, 2012). Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is an oilseed that contains 14% to 15% crude protein/kg, 32.3–40% crude fibre/kg and 27–32% fat/kg, (Gecgel et al, 2007). It is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, with linoleic acid (C 18:2) representing 70–87% of the total fatty acids (Coşge & Gürbüz, 2007). Owing to its wide anticarcinogenic action and benefits to human health, the possibility of increasing the deposition of this fatty acid in red meat could be of great interest, but this effect happens only when sources of linoleic acid (C18:2) are provided as part of the diet (Mir et al, 2004)
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