Influence of a High Ambient Temperature and Dietary Fat Supplementation on Fatty Acid Composition of Depot Fats in Finishing Pigs

Sixteen finishing barrows, weighing initially 85kg, were divided into 4 experimental treatments in a 2×2 factorial arrangement to determine the effects of a high ambient temperature (30°C vs.18°C) and dietary fat supplementation (10% of encapsulated-tallow supplementation vs 0%) on fatty acid composition of body fat. After 4 weeks of the feeding trial, pigs were slaughtered. Outer and inner layers of the backfat and the leaf fat were obtained as samples from the left half of carcass, and fatty acid composition of the fat samples was determined. Principal component analysis on fatty acid composition of the fat samples indicated that ratios of the total percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids to that of saturated fatty acids (M/S ratio) and precentages of oleic and linoleic acid represented difference in fatty acid composition in this study. M/S ratios of the outer layer of the backfat and that of the leaf fat were significantly lower at a high ambient temperature (P