An experiment with male albino rats was conducted to examine the effect of
dietary fat sources on growth performance and apparent digestibility of tot
al fat and fatty acids. The effect on plasma and organ cholesterol concentr
ations as well as lipoproteins cholesterol and fatty acid profile of hepati
c phospholipids was also examined. Forty 3 week old rats were fed purified
diets containing 0.041% cholesterol and 7% fat (wt/wt) from soy oil (SO), o
r cow ghee (GH), or 25% fish oil (FO) plus soy oil (SF) or 25% fish oil plu
s 75% ghee (GF), or 50% soy oil plus 50% ghee (SG) for a period of 35 days.
Final body weight, weight gain, organ weights and feed efficiency ratio sh
owed no significant differences (P < 0.05) among the dietary treatments. Th
e apparent digestibility of total dietary fat and saturated fatty acids in
the animals fed diet containing cow ghee only or in combination with fish o
il or soy oil was significantly lower than the other dietary groups. Consum
ption of ghee with combination of fish oil or soy oil lead to significant i
mprovement in the fat apparent digestibility of dietary fat. Total choleste
rol and triglyceride concentrations of plasma and organs as well as lipopro
tein cholesterol levels were higher in animals fed diets containing ghee. F
or rats fed diet containing cow ghee in combination with fish oil or soy oi
l, the cholesterol content of total plasma, lipoprotein fractions (VLDL, LD
L and HDL) and organs was decreased significantly. Furthermore, dietary fat
s altered the fatty acids composition of hepatic phosphlipid fatty acids co
mposition. Feeding dietary fish oil reduced arachidonic acid (20:4) and inc
reased linoleic acid (18:2) and eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5) contents. The
reduction in the arachidonic acid was being more pronounced in animals fed
dietary ghee with combination of fish oil.