Feeding pigs on industrial type farms aimed at obtaining large amounts of ω-3 fatty acids.

The presence of a large amounts of saturated fatty acids in foods (dairy products, fatty meats) and especially LDL cholesterol, is considered as one of the main causes of many diseases in humans, where cardio-vascular diseases take priority. For these reasons, in today’s modern society is increasing the intake of foods that contain a high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), especially omega-3 fatty acids, because it has been clearly proven that they have very beneficial effects on health. The aim of our experiment was to investigate whether the addition of only 3% of extruded flaxseed (rich in n-3 PUFA) in the pigs’ diet during the last 12 weeks of the final fattening, could be achieved obtaining of large amounts of n-3 fatty acids in raw meat, with improvement of mutual relations between n-3 and n-6 fatty acids. The second objective was to examine is there any impact of this modified diet on blood count and biochemical parameters (enzymes: AST, ALT, AP and total amount of cholesterol and its individual fractions LDL and HDL, triglycerides) in pigs’sera. After pigs reached body weight of about 60kg, we formed groups of 10 pigs in each pen. In the experimental group, feeding of pigs was based on the use of concentrated feed for final fattening that contained 3% flax seed (at the expense of reduced amounts of soybean meal). The control group was fed on the usual way. After reaching slaughter weight of 110 kg, pigs were sent to slaughter. Based on physico-chemical investigations of row meat samples (M. quadriceps and M. longissimusthoracis) taken from slaughtered animals from both groups, we found a statistically significant increase in the quantity of n-3 fatty acids in the meat of experimental animals compared to the control group. Based on hematological and biochemical tests, we found an increased level of “good” HDL cholesterol in the experimental animals’ sera.