Effect of Age and Sex on Histomorphometrical Characteristics of Two Muscles of Laticauda Lambs

Abstract

The aim of the present experiment was to determine the effect of sex and age on histochemical and morphometric characteristics of muscle fibres (myocytes) in lambs born by single, twin, triplet and quadruplet birth.Thirty lambs were slaughtered at 60 days of age; thirty were weaned at 60 days and fed until 120 days with flakes (60%) and food supplements, and then slaughtered. Muscle tissues were obtained from two muscles, namely m. semitendinosus and m. longissimus dorsi of all lambs. For each fibre type, area perimeter and diameter (maximum and minimum) were measured and slow-twitch oxidative fibres, fast-twitch glycolytic fibres, fast-twitch oxidative-glycolytic fibres were histochemically differentiated. The muscles were stained for myosin ATPase, and succinic dehydrogenase. At 60 days, females had fibres larger than males, whereas the opposite was observed at 120 days. Besides, at 60 days, the lambs born by single birth had fibres larger than those born by multiple birth, whereas the opposite was observed at 120 days. Single lambs were heavier than twin lambs and multiple lambs. Fast-twitch glycolytic fibres had the largest size, followed by slow-twitch oxidative and fast-twitch oxidative glycolytic fibres. The dimensions of fibre types in m. longissimus dorsi were larger than in m. semitendinosus (P < 0.001).These muscle fibre characteristics are thought to be important factors influencing meat quality, which is often related to metabolic and contractile properties as determined by the muscle fibre type distribution. Birth type, postnatal development, lamb, histochemistry, nutrition, muscle fibresThe Laticauda originated probably from the Northern African sheep, Berbera or Barbaresca, and it got the present characteristics thanks to subsequent crossbreeds with the sheep from the Apennines, the typical one from Southern Italy. Particularly, Laticauda is bred in the country of Benevento and Avellino and during the last years the head number has increased. This breed is traditionally reared in hilly farm pasture predominantly in sedentary breeding groups and the most common farming system is the "family farm type". Laticauda is a dual-purpose breed with the ability to produce good amount of milk and meat. Meat quality is affected by numerous factors including the growth stage and differentiation of skeletal muscle fibre types. The physiological differentiation of muscle fibres is a dynamic equilibrium which can vary during growth or as a response to the muscle work rate. Guth and Yellin (1971) noticed that muscle fibres continuously change during the animal's life as a functional demand adaptation and that the fibre type only reflects the fibre constitution at a certain moment. Henkel (1991) suggested muscle histochemistry as a tool for quantifying the effect of different treatments on the size of muscle fibres. In this study we have defined the skeletal muscle fibre populations of lambs by using different methods of m-ATPase and we have analyzed the postnatal development of these fibre populations bet...

Histochemical muscle fibre characteristics of German Heath lamb meat

“…Velotto et al (2010Velotto et al ( , 2005 confirmed the effect of sex on the muscle fibre characteristics of Laticuada or Italian Merino lambs. According to their results males had higher (P < 0.001) CSA, perimeter and diameter attributes of muscle fibres compared to females.…”

Histochemical Muscle Fiber Characteristics of Texel Meat

“…No differences between males and females were detected in this study, which was previously documented by non-significance of this factor in ANOVA evaluation. Results of presented study are in contrast to those of previously published by Fantová et al (2015), Wojtysiak et al (2010) or Velotto et al (2010Velotto et al ( , 2005 on German Heath, Polish Longwool, Laticuada or Italian Merino lambs. Anyway, evenness of males vs. females could be explained by comparable growth intensity in specified natural condition and permanent grazing pasture management.…”

The effect of breed and body weight at slaughter on histochemical muscle fiber characteristics and meat quality of longissimus lumborum and semitendinosus lamb muscles

“…The influence of age, and thus higher body weight, on muscle fiber diameter increase was also observed by Siqin et al (2017) in longissimus dorsi, biceps femoris and triceps brachii muscles of Wuzhumuqin sheep. Velotto et al (2010), examining the muscle fiber profiles in the longissimus dorsi and semitendinosus muscles in lambs of the Laticauda breed slaughtered at 60 and 120 d of age, also confirmed the greater diameters of all types of muscle fibers in older lambs. In contrast, unlike in the present study, the authors did not show differences in the fiber diameters between investigated muscles at the same slaughter age.…”

“…The composition of muscle fibers is also influenced by breed or animal genotype as well as by changes in their structure during the growth and development of animals (Solomon et al, 1981;Wegner et al, 2000;Kłosowska and Fiedler, 2003;Greenwood et al, 2007;Velotto et al, 2010;Siqin et al, 2017;Sirin et al, 2017).…”