Dietary combination of linseed and hazelnut skin as a sustainable strategy to enrich lamb with health promoting fatty acids.

This study investigated the effect of the inclusion of extruded linseed and hazelnut skin on fatty acid (FA) metabolism in finishing lambs. Forty lambs were divided into 4 groups and fed for 60 d with: a conventional cereal-based diet, or the same diet with 8% of extruded linseed, or 15% of hazelnut skin, or 4% of linseed plus 7.5% of hazelnut skin as partial replacement of maize. Dietary treatments did not affect growth performances, carcass traits, and ruminal fermentation. The combined effect of linseed and hazelnut skin enriched the intramuscular fat with health promoting FA. Particularly, increases in α-linolenic acid (3.75-fold), and very long-chain n-3 poly-unsaturated FA (+ 40%) were attributed to the supplementation with linseed, rich in α-linolenic acid. In addition, increases in rumenic (+ 33%), and vaccenic (+ 59%) acids were attributed to hazelnut skin tannins modulating ruminal biohydrogenation and accumulating intermediate metabolites. The simultaneous inclusion of linseed and hazelnut skin can be a profitable strategy for enriching the intramuscular fat of lambs with health promoting FA, without adverse effects on ruminal fermentation and animal performance.

Effects of feeding bergamot pulp and olive leaves on performance and meat quality in Apulo-Calabrese pigs.

To determine the effects of dietary inclusion of bergamot pulp and olive leaves on pork quality, thirty-six barrows (Apulo-Calabrese; 112.5 ± 7.40 kg initial bodyweight) were randomly assigned to four experimental treatments and fed for 100 days a control diet (control group) or a diet similar to the control diet in which part of the cereals were replaced with 20 % (DM on the diet fed) of ensiled bergamot pulp (dry matter on the diet fed, EBP group) or olive leaves (OLL group) or a 1:1 mixture of both by-products (BPOL group). In the present study, the dietary administration of by-products did not influence the accumulation of IMF (P > 0.05) in meat. As for individual fatty acids, no differences were observed among groups. However, the dietary supplementation of bergamot pulp tended to increase (P = 0.073) the level of α-linolenic acid in meat. In raw and cooked meat TBARS values were higher (P < 0.001) in the Control group than in EBP, OLL and BPOL groups. The integration of 20 % of bergamot pulp and/or olive leaves by-products increased the levels of tocopherol and phenolic compounds in the diets, positively influencing the shelf life of meat. No effect of diet was observed on animal performance. The results of present study indicated mainly that partial replacement of cereals with 20 % DM on the diet fed of ensiled bergamot pulp and olive leaves, either alone or in combination, in the pig's diet led to greater oxidative stability of the meat.