Olive pomace oil and acid oil as alternative fat sources in growing-finishing broiler chicken diets.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of olive pomace oil and olive pomace acid oil, which are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (FA) but differ in free FA content, on growth performance, digestibility and FA profile of abdominal fat and breast meat. A total of 3,048 one-day-old mixed-sex broiler chickens (Ross 308) were randomly distributed into 24 pens and 3 dietary treatments (8 replicates per treatment). Experimental diets were administered for growing (from 22 to 29 d) and finishing (from 30 to 39 d) periods, consisting of a basal diet supplemented with 6% (as-fed basis) palm oil (PO), olive pomace oil (O), or olive pomace acid oil (OA). Animals fed O achieved the lowest feed conversion ratio (P < 0.01), together with the highest AME value (P = 0.003), but no differences were observed between OA and PO. Regarding FA digestibility, O and OA showed higher values than PO for all FA in both apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and apparent total tract digestibility. Comparing the AID between O and OA, no differences were observed for total FA, monounsaturated FA, or polyunsaturated FA, but animals fed OA showed lower AID values for saturated FA than those fed O (P < 0.001). The FA profile of abdominal fat and breast meat reflected that of the diet, with higher monounsaturated FA and lower saturated FA in animals fed O and OA compared to those fed PO. In sum, the inclusion of both olive pomace oil and acid oil in growing-finishing broiler chicken diets led to great performance parameters and high FA digestibility values, together with an enrichment with monounsaturated FA in abdominal fat and breast meat compared to the use of palm oil. However, a better AID of saturated FA and feed conversion ratio is achieved with O compared to OA.

Crude and acid oils from olive pomace as alternative fat sources in growing-finishing pigs.

The inclusion of crude and acid oils from olive pomace can lead to more unsaturated meat products and, especially in the case of olive pomace acid oil, achieve a more economically and environmentally sustainable swine production. The objective of this trial was to study the effect of dietary supplementation with crude and acid oils from olive pomace, which are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (FAs) and have differing free FA content, on growth performance, digestibility, carcass parameters and FA profile of Longissimus muscle (LM) and backfat in growing-finishing pigs compared to the conventional crude palm oil. A total of 224 male and female pigs [(Landrace × Large White) × Duroc] were randomly distributed into 48 pens according to initial BW (58.7 ± 9.71 kg, mean ± SD) and sex. Four experimental treatments were randomly assigned (n = 12 pens/treatment; 4-5 pigs/pen) for the growing (0-42 days) and finishing (40-62 days) phases. Treatments consisted of a basal diet supplemented with 5% (as-fed basis) palm oil (PO), olive pomace oil (O), olive pomace acid oil (OA) or a mixture (M) of PO and OA at 50/50. No differences were found in the growth performance results between PO, O or M, but animals fed OA showed a lower gain to feed ratio than M (P = 0.008). No differences were found in apparent ileal digestibility among treatments, however, animals fed O and OA showed the highest values of total FA apparent total tract digestibility, while those fed PO had the lowest values, and M had intermediate values (P < 0.001). No differences were observed in carcass composition among treatments. In relation to backfat and the LM FA profile, O and OA treatments led to a higher unsaturated FA to saturated FA ratio and a lower content in saturated FA than PO. Moreover, O showed a higher intramuscular fat (IMF) content in LM than PO (P = 0.037). It is concluded that olive pomace oil is an interesting alternative fat source that can be included at 5% in growing-finishing pig diets, leading to meat products with more IMF, rich in monounsaturated FA, reaching high FA digestibility values and good pig performance parameters. Alternatively, olive pomace acid oil blended with conventional palm oil did not negatively impact fat utilisation nor performance. Including these fat by-products reduced feeding costs and led to a more efficient and environmentally sustainable production.