The study describes the profile of fatty acids in hind leg muscle of 18 female and 12 male nutria reared on an extensive system farm in eastern Poland with a diet based on fresh forage. When compared to results from nutrias from an intensive production system from the literature, the forage-fed animals had lower proportions of saturated fatty acids, and higher proportions of n3-fatty acids in their muscle tissue; in particular, n6:n3-fatty acid ratios were lower (2.6-3.0) in forage-fed animals compared to intensively reared animals (16.8-28.9). These findings underline that using forage-based diets is feasible in nutrias, and an economic way to improve the fatty acid composition of their meat. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
