Emphasis on Animal Nutrition and Consequent Meat Quality

aim of this thesis was to investigate importance of dietary fatty acids (FA) and animal age and sex on FA metabolism. In addition relation between FA and antioxidants on the consequent nutritional and technological quality of reindeer and red deer meat were addressed. A diet rich in polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) especially long chained n-3 FA (≥C20) has beneficial effects on human health, e.g. in prevention of arteriosclerosis. Game meat is a potential food source that is both lean and rich in n-3 PUFA, however different animal production systems can affect its natural FA composition. In the present studies on reindeer and red deer, that were either grazing or fed with pellets, meat from grazing animals had higher amounts of n-3 PUFA and lower n-6/n-3 ratio. Our results from feeding studies indicate that reindeer are unable to sufficiently elongate and desaturate towards 22:5n-3 and 22:6n-3, and indicate that dietary intake of C 22 PUFA is necessary for reindeer. The differences in FA composition between grazing reindeer of different sex and age were ascribed mainly to fatness