Effects of dietary pomegranate seed cake supplementation on performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of growing lambs

•Pomegranate seed cake (PSC) could replace cereals as a low cost feed in lambs diet.•PSC did not affect lambs growth and feed intake at inclusion levels up to 235 g/kg.•Overall acceptability of carcass was better at 175 g/kg diet of PSC.•PSC increased polyunsaturated fatty acid content in fatty tissue but not in muscle.•Malondialdehyde levels in muscle were increased by PSC when added at 235 g/kg. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of dietary pomegranate seed cake (PSC) supplementation, in replacement of corn and barley grain, on productive traits, carcass characteristics, intramuscular and subcutaneous fatty acid (FA) composition and meat antioxidant status. For the experiment, which lasted for 63 days, thirty six male growing Florina (Pelagonia) lambs were used. Lambs with a mean body weight (BW) of 19.86 ± 2.78 kg, were randomly allocated into four dietary treatments (PSC0, PSC115, PSC175, and PSC235) of 9 lambs each and accommodated in individual floor pens. The PSC was added to the concentrate mixture at inclusion levels of 0, 115, 175, and 235 g/kg concentrate for treatments PSC0, PSC115, PSC175 and PSC235, respectively. No differences (P > 0.05) occurred among PSC treatments in final BW, BW gain, dry matter (DM) intake and feed conversion ratio. Moreover, carcass characteristics were not affected (P > 0.05), except for the lean and fat color, fat firmness, wetness and overall acceptability of carcasses that were quadraticaly improved, with increased PSC feeding. In both intramuscular and subcutaneous fat, proportions of trans C18:1 (P = 0.001; P < 0.05, respectively), C18:2n-6t (P = 0.001; P < 0.01, respectively), and cis-9, trans-11 C18:2 (P = 0.001; P < 0.05, respectively) were linearly increased and Δ9-desaturase activity index concerning C18:1/C18:0 was linearly decreased (P < 0.05; P < 0.01, respectively). Moreover, in subcutaneous fat trans-10, cis-12 C18:2 (P = 0.001), cis-9, trans-11, cis-13 C18:3 (punicic acid; P = 0.001) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) (P < 0.05) proportions were linearly increased and that of cis-9 C18:1 (P < 0.05), C18:2n-6c (P = 0.001), C18:3n-3 (P = 0.001) and C20:3n-3 (P = 0.001) were linearly decreased with increasing PSC feeding. No effects (P < 0.05) of dietary PSC were observed in meat 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 1,1-Diphenyl-2-Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) values, but a linear increase (P = 0.001) was found in meat malon