Influence of dietary supplementation with sunflower oil and quebracho tannins on growth performance and meat fatty acid profile of Awassi lambs

The influence of dietary supplementation with quebracho tannins (QT) or/and sunflower oil (SF) on growth performance and fatty acid profile in meat of Awassi lambs was studied. Seventy-two lambs were assigned randomly to nine diets (8 per group) in the experiment following a 3(2) factorial design with all possible combinations of two factors, SF and QT each at three levels i.e. 0 (control), 20 or 40 g/kg diet DM. A significant SF x QT interaction was observed on the conjugated linoleic acid content of intramuscular fat (P = 0.007), but not on average daily weight gain (P = 0.11). Addition of QT at 40 g/ kg DM significantly increased average daily gain comparing to control diet. The inclusion of QT in the diet increased the content of the conjugated linoleic acid in the lamb meat above that achieved with SF supplementation only. Addition, of the combination of QT and SF to the diet enhanced the content of conjugated linoleic acid (C18:2 c9t11) of the lamb meat. This could be due to the reduction in the bio-hydrogenation of unsaturated fatty acids in the diet. The results suggest that inclusion the combination of QT and SF in lamb diets improved the healthy fatty acids content in the meat without an adverse effect on animal performance.