Effects of dietary vitamin E and fat supplementation in growing-finishing swine fed to a heavy slaughter weight of 150 kg: II. Tissue fatty acid profile, vitamin E concentrations, and antioxidant capacity of plasma and tissue.

The study evaluated vitamin E (VE) supplementation and fat source on fatty acid (FA) composition and VE concentrations in pigs. Three fat sources with distinctive fatty acid profiles were used; VE levels were 11 (the requirement estimate) and 200 (a high level to assure any responses could be seen) ppm. Increasing VE affected very few FA in tissues. Compared with the control pigs, pigs fed the coconut oil diet had greater content of saturated FA, pigs fed the distiller's corn oil diet had greater content of polyunsaturated FA content, and pigs fed the tallow diet had greater content of monounsaturated FA in tissues. Plasma VE increased with increasing length of feeding but faster in pigs fed the coconut oil and tallow diets compared with the control and distiller's corn oil diets when the 200 ppm VE level was fed; pigs fed the distiller's corn oil diet had the highest plasma VE concentrations when the 11 ppm VE level was fed. In conclusion, dietary VE did not affect FA profile in backfat, belly fat, and liver consistently, while different dietary fat sources affected much of the FA profile in tissues. The higher level of VE, as expected, increased liver and muscle VE concentrations.