Irie, 1990. Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci., 3 (1): 33-38

Fifteen Landrace pigs were used to determine the effects of supplemental copper or kapok meal, or both on the characteristics of the depot fat. The pigs were allocated into five groups of 3 pigs each. The animals were fed diets as follows: (1) control diet 100%; (2) control diet plus 20 mg/kg copper; (3) control diet plus 200 mg/kg copper; (4) control diet plus 3% kapok meal; (5) control diet plus 200 mg/kg copper and 3% kapok meal. In addition, 100 mg/kg iron and 100 mg/kg zinc were supplemented to all the diets. The pigs were slaughtered at the same time after 8weeks of feeding period at an average weight of 98.6 kg. The supplementation of 20 or 200 mg/kg dietary copper did not affect the fatty acid compositions, the iodine numbers, the melting points or the copper contents of the inner and outer layers of backfat and the perirenal fat from pigs. Supplementation of kapok meal significantly elevated the melting point, the content of C18:0 and the ratio of C18:0/C18:1 of the porcine fats and decreased the content of C16:1. There was no interaction noted between copper and kapok meal on the porcine fat characteristics. These results indicate that the swine diet supplemented up to 200 mg/kg copper with zinc and iron can be used in growing-finishing swine diets without affecting either porcine fat characteristics or hardening effect of kapok meal on porcine fat.