Breed differences in body composition of equally mature sheep

Abstract

SUMMARYSheep from the Soay, Finnish Landrace, Southdown and Oxford Down breeds were serially slaughtered at about 40, 50, 60 and 70% of their estimated mature body weight. Breed and sex comparisons were made at these degrees of maturity. Large differences were found in the weight of muscle, fat and bone, total muscle ranging from a mean of 3·3 kg in the Soay to 13·0 kg in the Oxford Down; the corresponding range for dissected fat was 1·2 to 9·2 kg.Most of the breed and sex differences observed at the same degree of maturity disappeared when expressed as a percentage of body or carcass weight. Thus both sexes had almost the same body and carcass composition in terms of fat, muscle and bone percentage. There were breed differences in fat percentage, with the Soay significantly less fat than the other breeds. Total muscle as a percentage of body weight was remarkably close to 28·5% in all breeds in both sexes, and at all four stages of maturity.

Sire carcass breeding values affect body composition in lambs — 1. Effects on lean weight and its distribution within the carcass as measured by computed tomography

“…no sex interaction with the b coefficient), which is in contrast to other studies who showed rams to have a higher impetus for muscle growth compared to ewes (Fourie et al, 1970;. McClelland et al (1976) showed that at approximately 50 to 60% of maturity ram and female composition was similar which may account for the lack of difference between sexes seen in our analysis. This result was emulated in another analysis (Thompson, Butterfield, & Perry, 1985), although in this case a cross-over effect was seen in…”

Características de carcaça e dos componentes não-carcaça de cabritos Moxotó e Canindé submetidos a dois níveis de alimentação

“…Cunha et al (2000) também não encontraram diferenças significativas entre cabritos Saanen e mestiços Boer x Saanen para peso ao abate, rendimento de carcaça quente e rendimento comercial, tendo em vista o tamanho e o peso adulto à maturidade de animais da raça Saanen. Segundo McClelland et al (1976), grande parte das diferenças na composição corporal entre grupos raciais ao mesmo peso simplesmente reflete diferenças de maturidade relativa entre raças, justificando os resultados obtidos, uma vez que as raças Moxotó e Canindé, segundo a Associação Brasileira dos Criadores de Caprinos (ABCC, 2000), apresentam tamanho e peso semelhantes à maturidade.…”

The effect of weight on carcass and meat quality of Serra da Estrela and Merino Branco lambs fattened with dehydrated lucerne

“…III), suggesting that the former were less mature [13,27]. However, the results obtained for carcass total separable fat (SF) do not support this conclusion.…”