Use of faba bean as a replacer of soybean meal in diet of Fabrianese lambs

Most of the lamb diets are based on soybean meal as the main protein source, often imported and derived from genetically modified varieties, which is not pos-sible to use in organic meat production. Use of faba bean to replace soybean meal as main pro-tein source in the diet of Fabrianese lambs was inves-tigated. Growth performance, dressing percentage, physical and chemical characteristics of longissimus thoracis and its fatty acid composition were investi-gated. Twenty-four Fabrianese entire male lambs were weaned at 59±5 days of age and were divided into two homogeneous groups (n = 12), then fed for 78 days with two different experimental diets. One group re-ceived a concentrate including 242 g/kg of faba bean (FB), the other group was fed on concentrate includ-ing 160 g/kg of soybean meal (SBM). Carcass quality, meat chemical composition and meat tenderness were not influenced by dietary treatment. The total amount of n-3 fatty acids was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in lambs fed with FB, with a conse-quent more favourable n-6/n-3 ratio. Conjugated Lin-oleic Acids (CLA) content was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in meat obtained from lambs fed FB diet. FB can replace SBM in concentrate mixtures for fat-tening lambs without adverse effects in growth perfor-mances and in carcass quality, causing a significant improvement of meat acidic profile, particularly con-sidering n-3 fatty acids and CLA content.