Lipid composition of muscle and adipose tissue from crossbred ram, wether and cryptorchid lambs

Lambs from rams (R), cryptorchids (C) and wethers (W) were examined to compare with the dietary guidelines for humans on fat and cholesterol intake. Twenty-four lambs were assigned to treatments as R, C or W at weaning (60 d). Each lamb had ad libitum access to a 77:23% forage:concentrate diet containing 11.7% crude protein and 1.84 Mcal ME/kg. The experiment was terminated when the lambs reached 50 kg body weight. Lipid composition of the longissimus muscle (LM) and s.c. adipose tissue was determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Rams has less (P less than .01) s.c. fat (cm) and i.m. lipid (%) (.26 cm; 3.*%) than W (.56 cm; 4.9%). Total polyunsaturated fatty acids were greater (P less than .01) in the LM of R (7.06%) than in LM of W (5.21%). Rams had higher percentages of C18:2, C18:3, C20:4 and C18:1 in their LM than W did. On the basis of a 100-g serving of LM, R had 1.73, C had 2.15 and W had 2.21 g saturated fatty acids. There were no (P less than .01) differences among sex types for cholesterol content of LM, which averaged 66.6 mg/100 g wet tissue. The only major difference of the s.c. fat lipid composition was in saturated fatty acids. Wethers had higher (P less than .01) saturated fatty acids (51.4%) than C 46.8%) and R (43.3%). Based on the lipid composition of these three types of lambs, the LM muscle from young R lambs approached dietary fat guidelines for humans more closely than did that from castrates.