Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Abbreviations: PER, protein effciency ratio, AF, animal fat; WF, wheat four Introduction Health challenges such as cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, end stage renal disease and diabetes are being linked to consumers’ eating habits and food consumption. 1 Optimal attention is being paid to food consumption which has led to increasing demand for healthier food, especially meat and meat products. 2 Meat and its products are not the main causes, but the amount of fats that were used during processing. The role of fat as one of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases has been well documented. 3–5 Fat, trans fatty acids (FAs), cholesterol and saturated FAs of meat products have also been associated with obesity and cancer (especially colon, prostate and breast) in developing countries. 6,7 The content of cholesterol in meat and meat products is infuenced by a variety of different factors, such as type of meat, the cut, and the preparation conditions (broiled, pan fried, boiled etc.). Despite these variations, the concentration of cholesterol generally varies between 75mg and 95mg per 100 g of meat with the notable exception of innards such as kidney, heart, and liver that have signifcantly higher cholesterol contents at 300–375mg per 100g of meat. 8 Recommendations for daily allowances generally state that cholesterol intake should be limited to less than 300mg per day. 8,9 Here, it is important to note that a reduced fat content and its replacement with lean meat does not necessarily decrease the amount of cholesterol in meat products. 10 Rather, in order to prepare meat products that are less in cholesterol and fat, the raw materials used must be replaced with plant materials such as fours, vegetable oils or proteins (Tables 1&2). Adv Obes Weight Manag Control. 2020;10(1):4‒13. 4 ©2020 Oshibanjo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Effect of partial replacement of fat in sausage diet with different fours at 5%, 10% and 15% level of inclusion on performance, hematological and serum biochemistry of wistar albino rat Volume 10 Issue 1 - 2020 Olusegun D Oshibanjo, 1 Akinfolarin B, 2 Opeyemi Adediran, 3 Idowu Adesope, 3 Lawrence Abegunde, 3 Izang Atang Iliya 1 1 Department of Animal Production, University of Jos, Nigeria 2 Nigeria Institute of Animal Science, Nigeria 3 Department of Animal Science University of Ibadan, Nigeria Correspondence: Olusegun D Oshibanjo, Department of Animal Production, University of Jos, Nigeria, Tel +2348055438564, Email Received: January 15, 2020 | Published: February 19, 2020 Abstract The demand for functional meats with reduced Animal Fat (AF) has increased globally. Chronic health disorders are often associated with high levels of dietary AF in meat products such as beef sausage (BS). Functional beef sausage (FBS) could be produced with alternative fours as replacer for AF. Effect of partial replacement of fat in sausage diet with different fours at 5%, 10% and 15% level of inclusion on performance, hematological and serum biochemistry of Wister albino rat was evaluated. The BS (g/100g: beef 65.0, lard 20.0, sodium chloride (SC) 2.0, others 13.0) was used. The FBS were developed using Wheat four (WF), Irish potato four (IPF) or corn four (CF) at 5%, 10% and 15% to replace fat (lard) in beef sausage recipe. Functional properties of the four were carried out using standard procedure. 60 weaned male albino rats (Wister strain) weighing between 60 - 62g were purchased. Advances in Obesity Weight Management & Control Research Article Open Access The rats were allotted to 12 dietary treatments with 6 rats per treatment in a completely randomised design. The study lasted 21 days and changes in their body weight were recorded. Feed Intake (FI), Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), Protein Intake (PI) and Protein Effciency Ratio (PER) were calculated. At the end of the feeding period, the animals were fasted of feed for 12 hours before blood samples were collected for hematological and serum biochemical analysis. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA at α 0.05. Irish potato four was signifcantly higher in bulk density, oil retention, foaming capacity, oil absorption capacity and emulsion activities compared to other fours. Corn four was statistically higher (P<0.05) in water retention, foam stability and water absorption capacity. Signifcant differences (P<0.05) were observed in all the hematological indices except for red blood cell which had similar values (P>0.05). However, there were no consistent trend observed in white blood cell count and its differential counts, which were rather fuctuating. Rats fed Irish potato based sausage had the highest Alanine Amino transferase (ALT) value while rats fed wheat based sausage diet had the lowest ALT of 11.87i.u/L. The Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) assay of rats reveals that rats fed casein-based diet and lard-based sausage had the highest AST values of 7.30i.u/L each with least AST in rats fed protein defcient diet. The urea value for rats on the casein-based diet was the highest (45.29 mg/dL) with least value in rats fed corn-based sausage diet. Rats fed wheat-based sausage had the highest cholesterol (107.97mg/dL), while corn-based sausage had the lowest cholesterol value of 56.16 mg/dL. Corn based breakfast sausage diet was higher (P<0.05) in protein effciency ratio with least score in protein defcient diet. Corn-based sausage had the highest biological value (95.68) with protein defcient diet having the least value (15.49).It was observed that rats fed corn- based breakfast sausage had the highest gained weight of 27g, while rats fed non-protein diet had the lowest weight change of -11g. Replacement of animal fat with corn four at 10% enhanced better growth performance, hematological and serum biochemistry. Keywords: beef sausage, animal fat, growth performance, hematological and serum biochemistry