Influence of Graded Levels of Dietary Linoleic and Linolenic Acids on the Fatty Acid Composition of Hens' Eggs

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Abstract
The levels of linoleic and linolenic acid incorporation into the egg lipids increased with the amounts of their presence in the diet and reached plateaus at the 5% dietary level. Linoleic acid reached a higher level than linolenic acid. The levels of incorporation of each were decreased, however, when tallow was included in the ration. Linoleic acid is the precursor of arachidonic and docosapentaenoic acids, whereas linolenic is the precursor of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexanenoic acids. When linoleic acid was fed without tallow, there was a higher degree of incorporation of labeled acetate in the yolk fatty acids than when linolenic acid was fed, but the degree of its incorporation into cholesterol was the same with both. The inclusion of tallow in the diet markedly reduced the degree of incorporation of acetate into both fatty acids and cholesterol in which case the levels of incorporation into both acids and cholesterol were higher with linolenic acid ingestion.