GROWTH AND CARDIOPATHOLOGY IN BOARS FED RAPESEED OIL

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Abstract
The effect on the performance and cardiopathology of Yorkshire boars of feeding a low (1%) erucic acid rapeseed [Brassica napus] (LEAR) oil and a high (24%) eruric acid rapeseed (HEAR) oil was studied. A corn-soybean-starch diet to which oil was not added served as the control diet; in the experimental diets 20% corn oil, 20% LEAR oil or 20% HEAR oil replaced the starch. Observed growth rate of boars fed the control and the rapeseed oil diets for 168 days tended to be lower than that for the corn oil diet, but the gains did not differ significantly. The daily feed intake by boars given the control diet was greater than that of boars fed the rapeseed oil and corn oil diets (P < 0.05); this was probably a reflection of dietary energy content, more of the lower-density control diet being consumed to satisfy a common energy requirement. A number of boars in each dietary group, including the controls fed the diet to which no oil had been added, exhibited cardiac lesions. The .chi.2 analysis of the lesion data revealed no significant interaction between the diets and 5 locations in the heart from which sections were taken. Although 87% of HEAR pigs and 73% of corn oil pigs had cardiac lesions, compared with 60% for each of the control and LEAR groups of pigs, such differences in incidence were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The etiology of the lesions remains obscure and there was no clear evidence that boars fed a particular diet showed any higher incidence or severity of lesions than did those fed any of the other 3 diets.