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Effect of flaxseed and flaxseed oil supplemented in caiman diet on meat fatty acids

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Abstract

Increasing polyunsaturated or long-chain fatty acids in meat for human consumption improves both nutritional quality and consumer perception. The increase could occur through the addition of rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids (such as flaxseed or flaxseed oil) to the animal diet. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplement with two presentations of flax (crushed seeds or oil) on the change of FA content in two cuts of caiman meat (tail and neck). We measured fatty profile in two different caiman meat cuts (neck and tail) from 30 animals (total length 96.7 ± 4.9 cm, snout-vent length 47.8 ± 3 cm, weight 4.2 ± 0.6 kg), raised in individual enclosures, fed three a week for 50 days with crushed chicken head and a dry food formulated for these reptiles in a 70/30 ratio (C, n = 10), control diet with 10% crushed flaxseed (FS, n = 10), and control diet with 10% flaxseed oil (FO, n = 10), while the remaining days animals were fed the control diet. Meats from animals fed both enrichment diet (FS and FO) showed an increase of C18:3n-3 and ΣUFA with respect to control diet. Although both enriched diets raised the levels of C18:3n-3, the neck showed higher values than the tail. We observed that the neck is more susceptible than the tail to be improved by FO, which could suggest that it is more beneficial to consume neck meat. In order to be implemented in caiman farms, flaxseed oil is more expensive than seed, but more effective, easier to manage, and is practical for application on caiman farms.

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Data availability

All data in this research are availability. Compositions of diets shown in Table 1 and Table 2; fatty acid composition of meat is included in Table 3.

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Acknowledgements

We thank other members of Proyecto Yacaré and we appreciate comments and suggestions of the manuscript by Dr. James Perran Ross.

Funding

This work was supported by the Proyecto Yacaré/Yacarés Santafesinos (Gob. Prov. de Santa Fe/MUPCN) and Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica PICT 2019 04300 (to P. Leiva).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas Y Transferencia de Tecnología a La Producción-Provincia de Entre Ríos-Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas, España 149, Diamante, Entre Ríos, Argentina

    Pamela M. L. Leiva, Antonio E. Frutos, Melina S. Simoncini & Carlos I. Piña

  2. Proyecto Yacaré - Laboratorio de Zoología AplicadaAnexo Vertebrados, (Facultad de Humanidades Y Ciencias-Universidad Nacional del Litoral/Ministerio de Medio Ambiente), Aristóbulo del Valle 8700, Santa Fe, Santa Fe, Argentina

    Pamela M. L. Leiva, Melina S. Simoncini & Carlos I. Piña

  3. Facultad de Ciencia Y Tecnología, Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos (FCYT-UADER), Tratardo del Pilar 314, Diamante, Entre Ríos, Argentina

    Pamela M. L. Leiva, Antonio E. Frutos, Melina S. Simoncini & Carlos I. Piña

  4. Cátedra de Bromatología Y Nutrición, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Bioquímica Y Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral (FBCB-UNL), Ciudad Universitaria, Paraje El Pozo S/N, Santa Fe, Argentina

    Jimena Lavandera & Marcela A. González

  5. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Y Tecnológicas-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas- Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Av. Vélez Sarsfield 1611, Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

    María C. Labaque

Authors
  1. Pamela M. L. Leiva
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  2. Antonio E. Frutos
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  3. Jimena Lavandera
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  4. Melina S. Simoncini
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  5. María C. Labaque
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  6. Carlos I. Piña
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  7. Marcela A. González
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Contributions

The author’s contributions were as follows: M.S.S. and C.I.P. conceived the study; M.A.G., M.C.L., M.S.S., and C.I.P. designed the study; P.M.L.L. and M.S.S. performed the experiment and collected the samples; J.L., M.A.G., and P.M.L.L. carried out the laboratory analyses; and A.E.F., P.M.L.L., and M.S.S. analyzed the data. All authors interpreted results, drafted the manuscript, and they critically revised the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melina S. Simoncini.

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All the animals were treated following the Reference ethical framework for biomedical research: ethical principles for research with laboratory, farm and wild animals (CONICET 2005) and all the experiments were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of the School of Biochemistry (Universidad Nacional del Litoral).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Leiva, P.M.L., Frutos, A.E., Lavandera, J. et al. Effect of flaxseed and flaxseed oil supplemented in caiman diet on meat fatty acids. Trop Anim Health Prod 53, 550 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-021-02974-y

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