Lipid changes in tissues of young boars fed rapeseed oil or corn oil

Fully refined rapeseed oil, Brassica campestris var. Arlo plus Echo, and corn oil were fed at 20% by weight of a basal diet to young Yorkshire boars. A serial slaughter technique was employed whereby 3 boars from each dietary treatment were killed at 0,1,2,3,4 and 8 weeks of the experiment. The fatty acid profiles of heart, liver, adrenals and testes lipids were investigated. The typical fatty acids of rapeseed oil, erucic and eicosenoic acids, were incorporated at different levels into the tissue lipids examined. After feeding the rapeseed oil diet for 1 week, the relative concentration of these fatty acids increased in the adrenals, while remaining similar in the heart, liver and testes. The relative concentration of eicosenoic acid was greater than that of erucic acid in all organs examined, except for the heart which contained equal amounts of these acids. Tissue levels of these acids in boars were compared to those found in rats fed the same rapeseed oil in previous studies.