Utilization of Various Dietary Fats by Baby Pigs

Abstract

A purified diet containing 0.41% total lipids was used to study the utilization of corn oil, beef tallow and lard as sources of dietary fat for young pigs. No significant differences were found in gain response to the various sources of fat. Digestion trials revealed a highly significant increase in total lipid digestibility of the corn oil diet in comparison to diets containing tallow or lard. Determination of the absorbability for 16:0, 18:0, 18:1 and 18:2 fatty acids showed a significantly lower absorbability of 18:0 compared to the other fatty acids. The 16:0 fatty acid was also more poorly absorbed than the unsaturated acids 18:1 and 18:2.