Nutritional Characteristics of Lambs Meat Fed Diets with Cotton Cake

• Published in: Journal of food quality Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 140 - 149
• Main Authors: Pereira, Luana, Pires, Aureliano J.V., Carvalho, Gleidson G.P., Silva, Rosani V.M.M., Simionato, Julliana I., Lacerda, Ellen C.Q., Bezerra, Lais S., Eiras, Carlos E., Carvalho, Bruna M.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.04.2016
• Subjects: Cakes; Concentration (composition); Cotton; Diets; Fatty acids; Intensive farming; Lamb; Meat
• ISSN: 0146-9428; 1745-4557
• DOI: 10.1111/jfq.12184

This study aimed to evaluate the nutritional quality of meat of lambs fed with cake originating from cotton production of biodiesel. Forty noncastrated lambs, crossbred Dorper versus Santa Inês from 20.9 to 36.7 kg of body weight finished in feedlot of 99 days and fed diets containing levels of cotton cake (0, 33, 66 and 100%) replacing soybean meal. The chemical composition and physicochemical characteristics were not influenced (P > 0.05) by the levels of cotton cake in the concentrate. Regarding the fatty acids found in the meat, there were no differences attributable to diet composition. The fatty acid found in the highest concentration (P < 0.05) of cotton cake was the mono‐unsaturated oleic acid (49.7%), followed by saturated palmitic acid (23.6%) and stearic acid (18.5%), unsatured poly‐linolenic acid (1.93%), saturated myristic (1.58%) and the mono‐unsaturated palmitoleic (1.45%). Practical Applications In diets for feedlot lambs, the cotton cake can replace soybean meal in the concentrate, corresponding to 120 g/kg of the total diet, and it does not change the nutritional characteristics of meat. Thus, cotton cake, with low cost ingredients, if used in diets for the production of lambs, provides good nutritional quality meat.