This review focuses on how game meat from southern Africa and venison that are increasingly being imported into Europe and the US addresses consumer issues as pertaining to production (wild, free range or intensive production) and harvesting methods, healthiness (chemical composition, particularly fatty acid composition), and traceability. Although African game meat species are farmed extensively, deer species are farmed using extensive to intensive production systems. However, the increasingly intensive production of the cervids and the accompanying practices associated with this (castration, velvetting, feeding of balanced diets, etc.) may have a negative impact in the near future on the consumer's perception of these animals. These alternative meat species are all harvested in a sustainable manner using acceptable methods. All these species have very low muscle fat contents consisting predominantly of structural lipid components (phospholipid and cholesterol) that have high proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids. This results in the meat having desirable polyunsaturated:saturated and n-6:n-3 fatty acid ratios. The South African traceability system is discussed briefly as an example on how these exporting countries are able to address the requirements pertaining to the import of meat as stipulated by the European Economic Community.

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The effects of feeding regimen on carcass characteristics, fatty acid composition and sensory quality of Musculus longissimus were studied in 16 male red deer. All animals were farm raised; eight were grazed on pasture and eight were fed a pelleted commercial feed mixture for 10 weeks prior to slaughter. The pellet-fed deer had a significantly higher dressing percentage than the pasture group. No differences were found in ultimate pH values and muscle glycogen content when comparing the treatment groups. Polar and neutral lipid fatty acid composition of the meat were analysed separately. Meat from pasture-fed deer showed a high content of the fatty acid 18:3 n-3 in the polar lipid fraction. In the same lipid fraction, the fatty acid 18:2 n-6 was dominant in meat from the pellet fed animals. Similar differences in the neutral lipid fraction were found when comparing fatty acid composition between treatment groups; however, the abundance of these fatty acids was much less. A trained expert panel using a descriptive test assessed the sensory profile of the meat. There was a significant difference between the two treatment groups for the sensory attribute of grassy flavour, with the pellet-fed animals having less grassy flavour than the animals grazing pasture. It was concluded that further research is needed to explore the effects of various feeding regimens applied to deer on parameters associated with meat lipids, including antioxidants and oxidation products.

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Forty-one reindeer bulls (age 1 1/2 years) were subjected to different pre-slaughter treatments: herding for a short distance to a grazing corral, selection by use of a lasso, lorry transport and helicopter herding for 1, 2 and 3 days respectively. As control, 9 reindeer were shot without previous handling (in the mountains). The results indicated the traditional selection technique of using a lasso to be the most stressful and glycogen-depleting handling procedure so far studied. In the lasso-selected reindeer the lowest glycogen values and the highest ultimate pH values in the meat were measured. The values of the measured parameters indicating stress (aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT), urea, Cortisol and abomasal lesions) were also highest in these reindeer. By contrast, the modern method of herding by helicopter was not found to be detrimental to glycogen content, ultimate pH, the measured blood metabolites, or the frequency of abomasal lesions. In all treatment groups degenerative lesions were observed in the skeletal muscles. No relarionship between technological and sensory meat quality characteristics and skeletal muscle lesions in reindeer could, however, be found in this study. The study confirmed an earlier finding that a 'stress-flavour' could develop in reindeer meat after intensive pre-slaughter handling of the animals. Further study of when and how such "stress-flavour" develops ought to be undertaken

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