The efficiency of dietary CLA in enhancing CLA proportions in
poultry meat has been intensively studied and showed quite a high
efficiency in order to enrich the meat. However, as
Kawahara et al.described, the proportion of the undesired
C18:2 trans-10, cis-12 CLA isomer increases as well; in their study it
was from 0.09% in control group to 0.60% and 1.22% of total lipids in
the groups receiving dietswith 1% and 2% CLA, respectively. An interesting,
sometimes wanted, side-effect of feeding CLA is that fat deposition
in the body is reduced. This could be the result of the known adverse effect
of fatty acids with trans-double bonds on de novo fatty acid synthesis. Interestingly, the CLA-fed pigs in the study of Barnes, Winslow, Shelton, Hlusko, and Azain also did have less backfat but expressed a trend for an increase in marbling score