Effect of soybean oil supplementation on the contents of plasma cholesterol and Cis9, trans11-CLA of the fat tissues in sheep

A feeding trial was conducted with 10 sheep for 12 weeks to examine the effect of soybean oil (SBO) supplementation on long-chain fatty acids composition, especially cis9,trans 11-conjugated linoleic acid (c9,t11-CLA) in fat tissues. Sheep were fed either a SBO supplemented diet (5%, DM basis) or a control diet without SBO. Chopped rye grass hay was fed as roughage. Concomitant increases in contents of total cholesterol (T-C) and HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) in the plasma of sheep were observed from the SBO supplementation. The supplementation of SBO reduced (p < 0.05) the proportions of C-16:1, C-17:0 and C-17:1 but increased (p < 0.05) the proportions of Cis(18:0) and octadecenoic acid (t11-Cis(18:1)) in the intramuscular fat. The C-18:0 proportion only in the subcutaneous fat was increased (p < 0.05) by the SBO supplementation. The SBO supplementation slightly increased CLA proportion in the intramuscular fat and subcutaneous fat.