Effect of protected fat supplementation to lactating goats on growth and fatty acid composition of perirenal fat in goat kids

An experiment was conducted to measure the response of goat kids to supplementary feeding of their dams with protected fat (calcium soap of fatty acids). At birth, 22 single male goat kids were distributed in two groups according to the dams’ diet supplemented with 0 (dam control diet, DCD) or 100 (dam protected fat, DPF) g/day of protected fat through lactation. Higher energy intake of dams given protected fat caused higher fat content of their milk ( P P P P P > 0Ό5) in terms of kid mean live-weight gain, being 172 g (DPF) compared with 148 g (DCD). Fatty acid composition of the perirenal fat showed some differences between groups. Fat composition of group DPF was significantly higher in palmitoleic, oleic and linoleic acid content. In addition, myristic, palmitic and stearic acid had lower values. Fat of goat kids of the DPF group was more unsaturated (43·3 g per 100 g) than fat from animals of the DCD group (32·5 g per 100 g). In the DPF group, oleic acid comprised most of the unsaturated fatty acid due to its important increase compared with fat composition of the DCD group. In conclusion, fatty acid composition of fat depot in goat kids can he modified by feeding of the dams through lactation, which could be useful for possible changes according to market demand.