A comparative study of n-3 PUFA enrichment, antioxidative status, and underlying mechanism of Pekin ducks fed different dietary oil sources.

This study investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with soybean oil (SO), flaxseed oil (FO), and rubber seed oil (RSO) on systemic fatty acid composition, antioxidant status, and hepatic lipid-metabolism-genes expression in Pekin ducks. A total of 144 one-day-old Pekin ducks were randomly allotted to three groups and fed diets containing SO (control), FO, or RSO for six weeks. The results showed that dietary FO and RSO supplementation reduced the liver index and abdominal fat index of Pekin ducks (P < 0.05). Furthermore, FO and RSO promoted the enrichment of n-3 PUFA and reduced the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio in plasma and liver (P < 0.05). In terms of lipid composition and antioxidant capacity, RSO exhibited more pronounced effects. Specifically, RSO significantly decreased plasma levels of triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), as well as hepatic TG content (P < 0.05). Moreover, RSO significantly reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in both plasma and liver, while enhancing the activities of plasma superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), as well as hepatic SOD activity. In addition, compared with SO, both FO and RSO increased the hepatic expression of CAT, ApoA-1, and LCAT, while decreasing the expression of PPARα, PPARγ, DGAT2, and SCD1 in Pekin ducks (P < 0.05). Overall, RSO enriched n-3 PUFA and reduced the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio in Pekin ducks, and also demonstrated superior lipid-lowering and antioxidant effects compared with FO. These findings suggest that RSO has potential as a dietary lipid source in duck production and as an ingredient for functional feed development.