Research Article

Fatty acids profile and health lipid indices in the longissimus lumborum muscle of different beef cattle breeds reared under intensive production systems

Renata Pilarczyk, Jerzy Wójcik

West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 14(1), 2015, 109‒126

Abstract. The aim of this study was the comparison of the fatty acids profile and health lipid indices of the longissimus lumborum muscle from 86 bulls of the Charolais (CH), Limousin (LM), Simmental (SM), Salers (SL), Hereford (HE) and Red Angus (RA) breeds reared under intensive production systems. As compared with the meat from bulls of other investigated breeds, the meat from SM bulls contained significantly more (P ≤ 0.05) polyunsaturated fatty acids such as C18:2n–6cis (LA), C18:3n–3 (LNA), C20:3n–6 and C22:6n–3 (DHA), a lower percentage of SFA, a higher percentage of PUFA, n–6 PUFA and UFA, as well as significantly more C20:5n–3 (EPA) and n–3 PUFA compared with CH, RA and LM bulls. The meat from CH and RA bulls was characterized by a significantly lower total content of PUFA and n–6 PUFA also in comparison with the meat from LM, HE and SL bulls, however higher content of CLA compared with the LM and SL breeds. The most advantageous PUFA/SFA, UFA/SFA and h/H ratios, as well as AI and TI were characteristic of the meat from SM bulls.

Keywords: beef, SFA, PUFA, CLA, atherogenic index, thrombogenic index