Fatty Acid Proﬁle of Pig Meat after Probiotic Administration Gloria Romina Ross, † Carina Paola Van Nieuwenhove, ‡ and Silvia Nelina Gonza ́ lez* ,†,‡ † Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia, Universidad Nacional de Tucuma ́ n-CONICET, Ayacucho 471, 4000-Tucuma ́ n, Argentina ‡ Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos (CERELA-CONICET), Laboratorio de Ecoﬁsiología Tecnoló gica, Chacabuco 145, 4000-Tucuma ́ n, Argentina ABSTRACT: The aim of this work was to study the fatty acid proﬁle of pig meat after probiotic administration. Thirty postweaned pigs (25 day old) were distributed into 2 groups: control (n = 15) and probiotic (n = 15). Each experimental group was fed ad libitum on a commercial diet for 35 days. Lactobacillus amylovorus and Enterococcus faecium mixed culture (10 8 CFU/ml) was daily orally delivered to the probiotic group. At the end of the assay, six pigs randomly selected from each group were slaughtered and muscle samples (Longissimus dorsi) were taken for fatty acid analysis. Tissues from the probiotic group animals exhibited an increase in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids; furthermore, linoleic acid (C18:2), linolenic acid (18:3), and cis-9,trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) concentrations were signiﬁcantly higher (p < 0.05) compared to the control group. These results suggest probiotic administration could be useful to modify and improve the fatty acid proﬁle of pig meat. KEYWORDS: conjugated linoleic acid, fatty acid, meat, pig, probiotic ■ INTRODUCTION Argentina is traditionally considered one of the greater bovine meat producers, and this meat is the most consumed in this country. However, there is increasing interest in pig meat con- sumption in recent years due to its health beneﬁts compared to bovine meat. Nowadays, there are much research carried out to improve the meat fatty acid proﬁle, increasing unsaturated fatty acids and decreasing saturated fatty acids levels, due to it being known that a direct relationship between saturated fatty acids and cardiovascular diseases exists. The meat fatty acid proﬁle might be inﬂuenced by modiﬁcations in animal diet; thus, probiotic administration to animals could be a novel and an important way to improve the nutritional quality of pig meat. Probiotics are “live microorganisms which, when adminis- tered in adequate amounts, confer a health beneﬁt on the host”. 1 There is much data about the inﬂuence of probiotic administration on lipids and cholesterol levels in animals and humans. 2 It was observed that Lactobacillus reuteri CRL 1098 caused a reduction in triglycerides and an increase in the ratio of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) to low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in spleens and livers in Swiss Albino mice. 3 In rabbits, administration of Enterococcus faecium CRL183 raised HDL cholesterol levels and lowered triglyceride levels. 4 In pigs, administration of L. johnsonii BFE 1059 and BFE 1061 and L. reuteri BFE 1058 produced a reduction in serum choles- terol levels after 3 weeks of treatment. 5 Supplementation of E. faecium EK13 during feeding resulted in a signiﬁcant decrease of cholesterol levels in piglets. 6 In humans, an increase of α-linolenic acid (18:3 n-3) in plasmatic phospholipids was observed in babies after Bif idobacteria Bb12 supplementation during lactation. 7 In recent years, researchers have been especially interested in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) producing bacteria to incorporate them in functional foods as a way to increase CLA concentration in human diet. CLA is a collective term to describe positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid (LA) (cis-9,cis-12 octadecadienoic acid) with conjugated double bonds. There is much evidence of CLA involvement in atherosclerosis 8 and carcinogenesis 9-11 prevention and immune response modulation. 12 Atherogenicity index (AI) describes the atherogenic potential of dietary fat. Foods with high AI are considered detrimental to human health. Our previous results showed that Lactobacillus amylovorus and E. faecium administration to postweaned pigs had antiparasitic activity and positive eﬀects on growth performance parameters and fecal microbiota. 13 However, the eﬀect of this probiotic administration on the muscle fatty acid proﬁle was not evaluated. The aim of this work was to evaluate the CLA- producing ability of L. amylovorus and E. faecium strains and the eﬀect of their administration on the meat fatty acid proﬁle in postweaned pigs. ■ MATERIALS AND METHODS Bacterial Strains and Culture Conditions. Two strains isolated from porcine feces, molecularly identiﬁed according to Roy et al. 14 as L. amylovorus and E. faecium and characterized for their in vitro probiotic properties, 15 were used in this study. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains were kept at -20 °C in MRS broth containing 30% v/v glycerol. Cultures were activated by successive subculturing into MRS broth and grown at 37 °C for 16 h. Bacterial CLA Production. L. amylovorus (2%, v/v) and E. faecium (2%, v/v) and the mixed culture (1% v/v, each) were inoculated in MRS broth containing 60 μg/mL linoleic acid (LA) (99% pure, Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA) as substrate. LA was dissolved in 1% v/v Tween 80 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate; Merck, Darmstadt, Received: December 28, 2011 Revised: April 12, 2012 Accepted: April 16, 2012 Published: April 16, 2012 Article pubs.acs.org/JAFC © 2012 American Chemical Society 5974 dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf205360h | J. Agric. Food Chem. 2012, 60, 5974-5978