What Fats & Oils mean for Poultry ?

By Nakula Mohlajee Sharma, Sales Executive Technical in Rnk Agro & Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.

•       FAT is another name for Lipids, Lipids of importance are triglycerides, phospholipids, sterols and fat-soluble vitamins (Brindley,1984)¹

•       Types of Lipids?

(a)                Simple lipids which are esters of fatty acids with various alcohols. They are of two types namely; Fats and oils-which are esters of fatty acids with glycerol and the other group is Waxes (present in Rice bran oil, soybean oil and others) which are esters of fatty acids with high molecular weight monohydric alcohols not recommended for poultry and most suited for Cosmetic industry.

(b)                Compound Lipids: examples are Phospholipids, glycolipids and lipoprotein) Phospholipids are fats containing phosphoric acid and frequently have nitrogen containing bases and other substituents. Glycolipids are fats containing carbohydrates and lipoproteins are lipids bound to proteins.

(c)                Derived Lipids: examples are fatty acids, glycerol, alcohols, fat soluble vitamins, sterols and terpernoids. These are derived by hydrolysis from simple or compound lipids. Most abundant sterol in animals is cholesterol

•       OILS are LIQUID (Vegetable oils) whereas FATS (Tallow, Lards, Butter, Ghee etc.) are solids at room temperature. Naturally LIPIDS are, insoluble in water.

•       Technically they are TRIGLYCERIDES or TRIACYLGLYCEROLS with different fatty acid profiles. OILS are esters of glycerol just like FATS (Tisch,2006)

•       Triglycerides contain three fatty acid molecules esterified to the three hydroxyl groups of glycerol.

•       Simple triglycerides contain only one type of fatty acid, whereas mixed triglycerides have two or three types (Enser, 1984). Fatty acid is an organic acid with a hydrocarbon chain connecting with a carboxyl group. If the same fatty acid occupies all three binding sites (Sn1, Sn2 & Sn3) on the positions of glycerol molecule, the compound is termed a simple triglyceride. If for example, stearic acid is conjugated at all three positions, the compound is called tristearin and if different fatty acids occupy three positions, then the compound is termed as mixed glycerides (Tisch,2006)

•       Free fatty acids (FFA) are free floating acids not attached to any other organic component, like glycerol.  

•       The term “saturated” indicates the absence of double bonds and this term is used with respect to hydrogen atoms, whereas “unsaturated” is the presence of one or more double bonds and is “unsaturated” in terms of hydrogen.

•       Presence of a double bond decreases the melting point (OILS)

            

 

Longer the chain, Lesser the double bonds, LESS soluble the fat will be in water(TALLOW) as their melting point is also higher.

Composition of fatty acids, degree of saturation and length of the carbonic Chain, determines fat quality.

FATTY ACIDS AND THEIR TYPES: (Tisch,2006)

1.        Short chain fatty acids (SCFA)-has aliphatic tails of less than six carbons such as C4:0(Butyric acid);C6:0(Caproic acid)

2.        Medium Chain Fatty acids (MCFA)-has aliphatic tails of six to twelve carbons such as C8:0 (Caprylic acid); C10:0 (Capric acid); C12:0 (Lauric acid); C14:0 (Myristic acid)

3.        Long Chain Fatty acids (LCFA)-has aliphatic tails between 14 to 20 carbons such as C15:0(Pentadecanoic acid); C16:0 (Palmitic acid); C16:1 (Palmitoleic acid); C17:0 (Margaric acid); C18:0 (Stearic acid); C18:1 (Oleic acid); C18:2 (Linoleic acid); C18:3 (Linolenic acid); C20:0 (Arachidic acid); C20:4 (Arachidonic acid); C22:0 (Erucic acid); C22:5 (Clupanodonic acid)

4.        Very Long Chain Fatty acids (VLCFA)- has aliphatic tails of more than 22 carbons such as C24:0 (tetracosanoic acid)

*Suffix 0 indicates no double bond and Suffix 1-5 indicate number of double bonds.

*The most abundantly available fatty acids are the ones between C14 to C22.

*Fatty acids with odd numbers such as C15, C17 are more commonly found in microorganisms

(Source: Pond et.al.(2005) ²

•        

Further classification of unsaturated fatty acids is done on the basis of arrangement of hydrogen atoms; namely, (Bettelheim et.al.2009, Mcdonald et.al.2002)

1.        TRANS FATTY ACIDS- Unsaturated fatty acids with hydrogen atoms on the opposite of double bond- these are not found in nature and formed after a process called hydrogenation

2.        CIS-FATTY ACIDS- Unsaturated Fatty acids have hydrogen atoms on the same side of double bond. They are naturally occurring with most unsaturated fatty acids.

                         

Commonly, we shall use fat for lipid, oils and fats.

References: -

1.        Brindley, D.N.(1984), Digestion, Absorption and Transport of Fat: general principles In Wiseman, J (Ed), Fats in Animal Nutrition,(pp85-103), Butterworths, London,UK.,

2.        Pond W.G., Church,D.C.,Pond K.R.,and Schoknecht,P.A.(2005), Basic Animal Nutrition and Feeding (5^th ed.)John Wiley & Sons Inc.USA.

3.        Tisch,D.A.(2006) Animal Feeds, feeding and nutrition, and ration evaluation, USA)

4.        Mcdonald,P.E.;Edmonds, R.A., Greenhalgh J.F.D., and Morgan,C.A.(2002), Animal Nutrition 6^th ed.

5.        Piyamas Tancharoenrat, 2012, A thesis presented for Doctor of philosophy in poultry nutrition at Massey Universit, Palmerston North, New Zealand, Factors influencing fat digestion in Poultry.

6.        Enser, M.(1984).The chemistry, biochemistry and nutritional importance of animal fats, in Wiseman,J,(Ed.), Fats in Animal Nutrition) Butterworths, London UK.