Carcass composition and meat quality of equally mature kids and lambs1

Abstract

Carcass composition and meat quality attributes of 55 suckling kids (27 males and 28 females) and 57 suckling lambs (28 males and 29 females) of Portuguese native breeds were investigated. These suckling kid and lamb meats are European meat quality labels produced according to "Cabrito de Barroso-PGI" and "Borrego Terrincho-PDO" specifications, respectively. Female kids were slaughtered at 9.1 ± 0.36 kg of BW, and male kids were slaughtered at 10.4 ± 0.37 kg of BW, corresponding to 20.1 and 17.7% of maturity, respectively. Female lambs were slaughtered at 8.6 ± 0.53 kg of BW, and male lambs were slaughtered at 9.9 ± 0.23 kg of BW, corresponding to 19.9 and 17.1% of maturity, respectively. At 24 h postmortem, various yield and quality measurements were collected. The left sides of the carcasses were dissected into muscle, subcutaneous fat, intermuscular fat, and bone. Final pH, instrumental color (L*, a*, b*), carcass measurements, and kidney knob and pelvic fat were also determined. Samples of LM were taken from the lumbar and thoracic cuts for intramuscular and meat quality determinations. At 72 h postmortem, a sample of LM was used for cooking losses and Warner-Bratzler shear force determination. Suckling lambs had greater dressing proportion than suckling kids (P < 0.01). Carcass fatness was not affected by species (P > 0.05), but females had greater kidney knob and pelvic fat proportion than males (P < 0.01). Lambs had greater proportions of the highly valued leg cut and lower proportions of shoulder, anterior rib, and neck cuts than kids. Dissection results indicated that kid carcasses had greater muscle content and lower dissected fat and bone than lambs. Kids had greater (P < 0.001) muscle ultimate pH value than lambs (5.8 ± 0.02 vs. 5.6 ± 0.02). Males had greater (P < 0.05) muscle ultimate pH value than females (5.7 ± 0.02 vs. 5.6 ± 0.02). The kid meat was significantly lighter (P < 0.05) and less yellow (P < 0.001) than the lamb meat. Kids presented less cooking losses (P < 0.001) than lambs, and shear force value was significantly greater (P < 0.01) in lamb meat. The kid meat had significantly more moisture (P < 0.001) and less intramuscular fat content (P < 0.001) than lambs. At this maturity stage, there were significant differences on both carcass and meat quality attributes of suckling kids and lambs, possibly due to inherent differences between species.

Meat Quality and Fatty Acid Composition of Chios Male Lambs Fed Under Traditional and Intensive Conditions

“…Although feeding system in this study appeared to have no effect on thawing loss, cooking loss, pH 24 , a number of studies have reported that these parameters do change along with changes in feeding system (Skapetas et al, 2006;Rodriguez et al, 2008;Santos et al, 2008). However, our findings are in agreement with the findings of Cerdeno et al, (2006) who found no significant differences neither in meat pH value nor in colour between different feeding practices.…”

“…However, many studies have demonstrated differences in carcass and meat quality between older lambs under intensive feeding and pasture-based systems (Carrasco et al, 2009, Luciano et al, 2009, Barbut, 2014. Animals fattened under these two different systems had significantly different carcass fat and meat colour (Barwick, 1980, Priolo et al, 2002, Rodriguez et al, 2008, fatness status (Santos et al, 2002;Santos et al,2008) and meat flavor (Saňudo et al, 2000). Our results related to meat colour disagree with the results of (Peña et al (2005) As shown in Table 5, texture parameters were lower in intensively fed lamb compared to the traditional fed lambs.…”

“…As well known, meat quality of sheep is affected by breed, vegetation and feeding practices. Various aromatic compounds in natural vegetation during grazing may also affect the lamb meat quality (Kempt et al, 1981;Zervas et al, 1999;Özbey et al, 2000;Prioloa et al, 2002;Santos et al, 2008). It has been reported with previous studies (Esenbuğa et al, 2009;Yakan and Ünal, 2010) that there are important differences in animal feeding among geographical regions and even among districts.…”

Dry matter intake, performance and carcass characteristics of hair sheep reared under different grazing systems

“…The two halves of carcass were weighed and each was divided into five commercial cuts according to Santos et al (2008). These cuts were leg, shoulder, loin, rib/flank and neck which were weighed separately.…”

Meat quality and carcass characteristics of Merino Precoce suckling lambs raised under confinement in the Mediterranean semi-humid dryland of Central Chile

“…Further, it is important to encourage market diversification, enabling product differentiation and value adding. One such strategy may include the production of suckling lambs, a product that plays an important role in various countries in the European Union (Velasco et al, 2000;Osorio et al, 2008;Santos et al, 2008). lt is expected that such changes will increase producer income and profitability, substantially enhancing sector development and thus creating a sustainable lamb production system over time.…”