The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of
level of dietary FO supplementation on uterine, ovarian
and metabolic responses of beef heifers and also to
establish the relationship between feed and plasma
concentrations of n-3 PUFA and their concentrations in
reproductive tissues. To our knowledge this is the first
study to examine such high dietary concentrations of the
n-3 PUFA, EPA and DHA on reproductive and
metabolic processes.
Supplementation of the basal diet with the highest
level of the fish oil supplement (4.15% FO) led to a
significant reduction in DMI comparable to that
reported in previous studies [28–30] when feeding fish
oil in excess of 1% and may have been due to poorer
palatability as a consequence of a strong fishy odour
from the supplement offered and/or modification of the