Influence of Dietary Supplements of Vitamin D3 and Various Fats on Cholesterol and Fatty Acid Composition of the Blood and Body of Growing-Finishing Swine

Authors

M. H. Jurgens, Iowa State University
E. R. Peo, Jr., University of Nebraska-Lincoln
P. E. Vipperman, Jr., University of Nebraska-Lincoln
R. W. Mandingo, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1970

Comments

Published in the Journal of Animal Science 30 (1970), pp. 904-910. Copyright © 1970 American Society of Animal Science. Used by permission.

Abstract

Previous work at this station suggested that vitamin D₂, when fed with or without dietary cholesterol, depressed blood cholesterol levels of swine (Jurgens, Peo and Vipperman, 1967) and rats (Jurgens, Blunn and Peo, 1968). While not proven to be the cause, blood cholesterol levels have been used as one of the main criteria to estimate the development of atherosclerosis in man (Rabinowitz, Meyerson and Wohl, 1960; Swell, Law and Treadwell, 1962). Several investigators have reported that supplementation of unsaturated fats (Ahrens et al., 1957; Okey and Lyman, 1957; Avigan and Steinberg, 1958; Peifer, 1966) and especially linoleic acid (Jagannathan, 1962; Swell et al., 1962), into the diet will reduce blood cholesterol levels. Thus, the present work was undertaken to study the effects of dietary supplements of vitamin D₃ with either a highly unsaturated fat (safflower oil) or a highly saturated fat (coconut oil) on the cholesterol content of blood and the cholesterol and fatty acid composition of certain tissues of growing-finishing swine.