Effect of Duodenal Administration of Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids on Composition of Ruminant Depot Fat

ALTHOUGH linolenic acid is the main fatty acid of pasture lipids, the fats of pasture-fed ruminants contain little if any of this constituent 1 . Also, feeding large quantities of highly unsaturated oils to ruminants has had no perceptible effect on the unsaturation of their depot fats 2 . Various workers 3–5 have shown that micro-organisms in the rumen hydrogenate dietary unsaturated fatty acids, and this has been presumed to explain the low content of highly unsaturated fatty acids in the depot fats of ruminants.