helping reduce the risk of soft carcass fat.
Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
These particular fatty acids are required by the animal and are described as ‘essential’ as they cannot be produced by the animals themselves and so must be supplied in the diet. Soya bean oil is a good source of omega-6 fatty acids while linseed and fish oils are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
- A general guideline in diet formulation is that omega-6 : omega-3 ratio should not be higher than 5.
Free fatty acids and triglycerides
Fat added to diets may be in the form of ‘free fatty acids’ or as ‘triglycerides’ (three fatty acid chains combined to glycerol). Monogastric animals have a limited ability to use free fatty acids, with the triglyceride form being the most effective form of fat in diets.
- When formulating diets, the ratio of free fatty acids as a % of the total fat in the finished feed should not be higher than 40%.
Fat can only be used if it is digested by the animal and digestibility varies between both fat- and animal-types. As a guideline, fat digestibility is :
- Lower for poultry than for pigs
- Lower for younger than older animals
- Lower for saturated than unsaturated fatty acids
- Lower for free fatty acids than for triglycerides
Emulsifiers are generally based on phospholipids from lecithin and are often added to diets to improve fat digestibility. Volac Wilmar’s Mega-One and Mega-One Extra products contain lecithin to increase fat digestibility and the benefit of the products to the animal.
Digestion and conversion of feed to energy produces heat in the animal’s body which contributes to heat stress. However, fat generates considerably less heat than all other energy sources and is often added to diets in hot temperatures as a nutritional method of reducing heat stress.
For this reason we often refer to fat as a ‘cool’ ingredient.
Amount of fat in diets
Traditional ingredients in pig and poultry diets typically have a low fat content. For example, cereals such as wheat and barley typically have 2% or less fat, while maize grains (corn) are slightly higher at around 3.5%.
If adding fat to a ration, it is important to consider the factors affecting performance as described previously. Hence, adding liquid oils may increase digestibility of the fat but can lead to poor meat quality, so the balance between liquid oil sources and solid fat supplements may be a balance between optimising fat digestion and carcass quality.
Solid fat supplements
Volac Wilmar offer three fat supplements suitable for monogastrics in solid, easy-to-handle form. All products are in the more-digestible triglyceride form and include Mega-Boost, Mega-one (contains 6% lecithin as an emulsifier) and Mega-one Extra (with 16% lecithin) most suited to very young animals or those with weakened digestive systems (e.g. due to poor gut health).
Click here to view products suitable for monogastric animals.