The Effects of Crossbreeding on Meat Fatty Acids Profile in Qazvinian Native Goats

The study was conducted to investigate the fatty acid profile of intramuscular fat in longissimus lumborum (LL) of three genotypic groups: Qazvinian native (Q, n=10), crossbred Qazvinian native × Saanen breed (QS, n=10) and backcrossed Qazvinian native × Saanen breed (QSS, n=9) male kids.All of kids were weaned at 75-days-old and then fed with a diet consisted of concentrate (70%) and alfalfa hay (30%). The kids were slaughtered with an average age of 130 days and immediately samples of LL muscle were collected. Data were analyzed through one-way ANOVA using the generalized linear model (GLM) procedure. The total differences among genotypic groups were evaluated by a canonical discriminant analysis (CDA).The concentration of intramuscular fat (g/100g meat, Q=0.94, QS=2.01 and QSS=1.05) and saturated fatty acids (SFA; Q=40.87, QS=43.25 and QSS=36.9), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA; Q=12.99, QS=13.89 and QSS=22.41), total conjugated linoleic acids (CLA, Q=2.1, QS=2.32 and QSS=1.02) and desirable fatty acids (Q=73.63, QS=67.18 and QSS=74.87) as g/100 g total fatty acids between genotypic groups were significant (P<0.05). Furthermore, the PUFA:SFA and linoleic (C18:2 n-6):alpha-linolenic acids (C18:3 n-3) ratio in genotypic groups were significant (P<0.05). The genotypic groups were separated by CDA, based on their meat fatty acids profile. Results demonstrated that crossbreeding could significantly change the intramuscular fatty acids profile. Therefore, it can be concluded that the fatty acids profile in crossbred kids are better than that of native Qazvinian kids. In these experimental conditions, results of the present study demonstrated that crossbreeding could be a suitable strategy for producing meat with higher concentration of unsaturated fatty acids with beneficial properties for health of consumers.