The fatty acid composition of the liver and brain of Southern African cheetahs

Abstract

To date, no information is available on the fatty acid composition of cheetah liver and brain, nor have any comparisons been made between captive-fed and wild cheetah. The fatty acid compositions of the tissues of other members of the family Felinae have been published previously. However, the cheetah does not belong to the same genus as those species, and thus the fatty acid pattern may be different. For many years, it has been known that the plant derived polyenoic fatty acids, linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid, are essential dietary components for mammals. It has been shown that at least two species of the Carnivora (the lion Panthera leo and the domestic cat Felis cattus) lack the enzyme 6-desaturase and thus, the ability to further desaturate these two fatty acids to produce their metabolically important derivatives. However, the polyenoics produced are required by both species. In order to satisfy the requirement for these fatty acids, other animals must be consumed, hence these animals are true obligate carnivores. The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) exhibits many adaptive differences from both the above species, and many show other differences from the rest of the Felinae other than the obvious anatomical ones. Thus, the possibility exists for an active 6-desaturase enzyme in cheetahs, although tentative evidence to the contrary does exist. In this study, the livers and brains of 2 adult male cheetahs were obtained after the animals had been culled in SWA/Namibia. The liver of 1 aged male cheetah from de Wildt, Transvaal also became available. The animals from SWA/Namibia had not been in captivity as far as was possible to ascertain, thus it was assumed that their diet had consisted predominantly of nondomesticated prey. It has been shown that wild cheetah only eat freshly killed animals and do not return to a kill, thus the lipids obtained are completely fresh and the chances of fatty acid degradation are minimal. The de Wildt animal, however, had been fed in captivity for a long period of time, in fact most of its life, and thus had subsisted on lipids from tissues in a state of partial degradation. The possibility of fatty acid deterioration must therefore be considered in relation to this animal. P q . Lipid Rw. Vo1. 25, pp. 97-99, 1986 Prinied in Great Britain. AH rights reservcd 01 63-7827/86/$0.00 .+ 0.50 8 1986 Perramon Journals Lid THE FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF THE LIVER AND BRAIN OF SOUTHERN AFRJCAN CHEETAHS B. C. DAVIDSON,* D. MORSBACH~ and R. C. CANTRILL* *Depnrtment of Medicul Biochemistry, Wniversiry of the Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg 2001, South AJrica TThe Depurlmenr of AgriculIure and Nurure Conservu~ion, Windhoek, SWA/Namibin, Soufh Africa