Antioxidant effect of flaxseed in the fat of Caiman latirostris

VALLI, F.; LEIVA, P. M. L.; SIMONCINI, M. S.; PIÑA, C. I.; GONZALEZ, M.A.

Chetumal

Congreso; XXVI Working Meeting Crocodiles Specialist Group - UICN; 2022

Crocodiles Specialist Group - UICN

In Santa Fe(Argentina) Proyecto Yacaré is a program based on ranching (collection of Caiman latirostris eggs from wildpopulations for farming of hatchlings). Ten percent of the hatched animals arereintroduced into the same harvesting areas, and ninety percent is used forleather and meat production; until today lipid deposits of the carcass arediscarded. Previous studies reported enrichment of caiman meat when groundflaxseed is included in the regular diet. For this reason, our work aims toassess whether the addition of flaxseed to the diet (considered a powerfulantioxidant) also improves fat quality, delaying deterioration and extendingfat integrity. In order to do so we grew during 30 and 60 days caimans ofslaughtering size. Animals were fed ad libitum six times a week with thecontrol diet (crashed chicken head + dry balanced supplement 70/30) (C30 andC60), and control diet + ground flaxseed (90/10) (FS30 and FS60). After theexperiment we removed fat deposits and determined catalase and glutathioneperoxidase activity, lipoperoxidation (LPO), and oxygen reactive species(ORSs). Flaxseed addition in diet increased antioxidant enzymes activity, andreduced lipidical peroxides and ORSs in both groups fed with flaxseed but inFS60 there was a greater decrease in LPO and ORSs compared to the other groups.Based on our results, we corroborated the antioxidant capability of the dietwith flaxseed, increasing quality duration and integrity of fatty tissues.Future studies will evaluate possible commercial use of caiman fatty tissue.