Water holding capacity of Swamp Buffalo muscles raised with and without proper herd health

Abstract

Fresh meat is composed of 70-75% water. Meanwhile, water holding capacity (WHC) affects storage quality, appearance, eating experience, and also contributes to loss of profit for meat entrepreneurs. WHC is influenced by the species, sex, breed, farming practices, as well as post-slaughter storage and handling. Swamp buffalo meat is leaner compared to cattle, goats, and sheep. Therefore, this study aims to determine the WHC of swamp buffalo muscles raised with two herd health programs at different aging periods. A total of 24 months old male swamp buffalo (n=4) was raised with a proper herd health protocol (HHP) and another (n=6) without a proper herd health protocol (NHHP). The drip loss (DL), thawing loss (TL), and cooking loss (CL) for longissimus dorsi (LD), supraspinatus (SS), and semitendinosus (ST) muscles were evaluated on day 1, 7, and 14. Based on the results, only SS and ST from NHHP showed significant differences (P≤0.05), while DL, LD, SS, and ST of the HHP and NHHP also differed significantly (P≤0.05). Furthermore, the TL and CL for all the muscles showed significant differences (P≤0.05) at day 7 of aging in the NHHP group, while on day 14, both were significantly higher in LD and ST muscles of NHHP compared to the HHP group. Therefore, the results showed that the muscles of the HHP group had a better WHC compared to NHHP.