The aim of this work was to study the effect of the combination of different levels of conjugated linoleic
acid (CLA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in pig diets on several productive, carcass and meat quality traits. It was found that the use of dietary CLA did not cause any effect on productive and carcass quality traits when combined with either low or high MUFA levels in pig diets. Dietary CLA levels up to 1% increased the intramuscular
fat content, whereas a linear CLA enrichment of pork was achieved with increasing dietary CLA levels. Moreover, dietary CLA modified the fatty acid profile of intramuscular fat by increasing the ratio of SFA to unsaturated fatty acids following a CLA dose-dependent behaviour. All these effects were independent on the MUFA level of the diets. In order to counteract the decrease in the MUFA content of pork fat, MUFA enrichment of pig diets when supplementing CLA would be an attractive strategy, although higher levels of dietary MUFA than those used in the present work would
be necessary.