Effect of Sunflower Seeds on Performance, Carcass Quality, Fatty Acids and Acceptability of Pork

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Two trials were conducted with crossbred weanling pigs to determine the effects of dietary sunflower seed level on performance, carcass characteristics, chemical composition, fatty acid analysis and acceptability of pork. Pigs were fed ad libitum diets containing 0, 5, 10 or 20% sunflower seeds in trial 1 and 0, 2.5, 5 or 10% seeds in trial 2. In trial 1, overall gain showed a cubic effect (P<.05) with most rapid gains by pigs fed 5% and slowest gains by pigs fed 20% sunflower seeds. Overall, gain increased linearly (P<.01) with increasing levels of sunflower seeds in trial 2. Feed to gain ratio was not affected by dietary sunflower seed level. Overall, feed intake decreased at the higher sunflower seed levels in trial 1 (cubic effect, P<.06) but increased linearly with increasing levels of sunflower seeds in trial 2 (P>.1). Carcasses from pigs fed sunflower seeds were less firm as indicated by a linear increase (P<.01) in iodine number, a linear increase (P<.01) in percentage of total unsaturated fatty acids and lower carcass firmness score. Subcutaneous fat from pigs fed increasing levels of dietary sunflower seeds decreased linearly (P<.01) in myristic, palmitic, stearic, palmitoleic and oleic acid and increased in linoleic acid. The diets had no significant effect on other quantitative carcass characteristics or chemical composition of pork chops and did not affect the acceptability of the pork as evaluated by a taste panel. Bacon sliceability became slightly more difficult with increasing levels of dietary sunflower seeds. These results indicate that up to 10% sunflower seeds can be used in growing-finishing swine diets without adversely affecting either performance or the pork produced. Copyright © 1985. American Society of Animal Science. Copyright 1985 by American Society of Animal Science

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: