Supplementing kids diet with olive leaves: Effect on meat quality

Abstract

Effect of increasing levels of olive leaves in the diet on intake, growth rate and meat quality of kids was studied. Twenty-four Mahabadi kids (initial body weight (BW) of 21.3 ± 1.14 kg and 5–6 months of age) were randomly assigned to three groups (n = 8). One group was fed a basal diet as control (without OL) while the diet of the other two groups was modifed by substituting 7.5 % (OL7.5) and 15 % (OL15) of the control with OL. The results showed that total dry matter intake and growth performance were not affected by diets (P > 0.05). Feeding OL increased the concentrations of C18:1 (P < 0.001), C18:2 n-6 (P < 0.05), C18:3 n-3 (P < 0.001), n-6 PUFA (P < 0.001) and n-3 PUFA (P < 0.05) and decreased the C16:0 (P < 0.05), C18:0 (P < 0.01) and the ratio of n-6/n-3 (P < 0.05) in both muscle and adipose tissues. An important increase (P < 0.01) was observed in CLA of meat, with increasing OL level in diet. The present study indicated that the OL may have favorable impact on improving meat fatty acid profle.