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High-fat rations and lipid peroxidation in ruminants: consequences on the health of animals and quality of their products

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2005

Year

Abstract

The health value of ruminant products (milk, meat) can be improved by different dietary strategies in order to lower atherogenic fatty acids (FA) such as some saturated FA (14:0 and 16:0) and transvaccenic acid (18:111t) and favour beneficial polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) with a particular emphasis on n-3 PUFA. Hence, fresh grass which is rich in linolenic acid (18:3n-3) and vegetable oils (supplied as seeds or free oil) which are rich in linoleic (18:2n-6, from soybean or sunflower seed) or linolenic (from linseed) acids are the main dietary sources of PUFA which can be readily incorporated into lipids of milk or muscle tissues. Nevertheless, the high sensitivity of PUFA to lipoperoxidation in plasma and tissues of ruminants can increase the risk of alteration of the animal health in addition to a lower nutritional quality of their products. Thus, further investigations are needed to define the most efficient combination of antioxidant sources in the context of dietary PUFA supplementations in lactating and meat producing ruminants.