Animal performance and fatty acid composition of lambs fed with different vegetable oils.

Twenty-seven lambs were used to investigate the effects of the inclusion of 4% hydrogenated palm oil (HPO) or sunflower oil (SFO) in the concentrate on animal performance, carcass and meat quality and fat characteristics and fatty acid composition. Animals (16.2±0.27kg initial weight) were fed concentrate (Control, HPO or SFO) and barley straw ad libitum and slaughtered at 25kg. SFO lambs tended to eat less concentrate than HPO animals (P<0.10). Neither HPO nor SFO affected any of the carcass characteristics studied, meat pH and meat and fat colour (P>0.05). SFO decreased proportions of C16:0, C18:1 cis-11 and C18:3 (P<0.05) and increased C18:1 trans (P<0.001) and C18:2/C18:3 ratio (P<0.05). Atherogenicity index was lower (P<0.05) when SFO was included in the concentrate. HPO did not affected and SFO improved fatty acid composition of fattening lambs without affecting animal performance.