Nowadays, the concern about ingesting healthier diets, maintaining adequate plasma cholesterol level, and consequent reduction on the incidence of cardiovascular diseases has been growing. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the centesimal composition and the fatty acids profile of calves of four different genetic groups: Nelore (R1), Nelore x Canchin (R2), Nelore x Limousin (R3), and Nelore x Aberdeen Angus (R4), fed basal diet (D1) or a diet with protected lipids (D2). No differences were observed for the contents of moisture, protein, total lipids, saturated fatty acids, and monounsaturated fatty acids. The protected diet resulted in an increase in the content of total polyunsaturated fatty acids when compared to D1. However, the animals fed with D1 showed higher AGPI w-3 content than those fed with D2. It was observed that the current techniques of animal nutrition and production guarantee a product with smaller lipid content and higher total AGPI content, desirable characteristic for the human health. Further studies should be carried out to evaluate the effects of veal calves besides using other experimental models to evaluate the effects of calves on the cholesterolemy.
beef; fatty acids; centesimal composition
