Chemical Composition and Meat Quality Attributes of Indigenous Sheep and Goats from Traditional Production System in Tanzania

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare chemical composition and quality attributes of meat between male long fat tailed sheep (n = 17) and Small East African goats (n = 17) existing in Tanzania. Animals of 1.5 to 2 yrs in age and live body weight of 22.59±0.50 kg were purchased from livestock auction markets. Animals were fasted for 18 h and slaughtered according to standard halal procedure. Left carcasses were dissected into muscles, fat and bone and the muscle and fat were mixed together and chemically analysed. Meat quality attributes were measured based on Muscle longissimus thoracis et lumborum excised from right sides of carcasses. Goat carcasses had significant higher (p = 0.0302) moisture content (70.65% vs 66.96%) and lower (p = 0.0027) ether extract (2.49% vs 5.82%) than sheep but there was no significant species differences in protein and ash content. Sheep had lower (p = 0.0157) ultimate pH (5.74 vs 5.88) and higher (p = 0.0307) temperature (3.77°C vs 3.15°C) than goat carcasses. Sheep meat had lower (p = 0.0021) shear force values (29.83 N vs 34.07 N) than goat. Within species, at day 9 of ageing, meat tenderness improved (p = 0.0001) by 44.63% and 34.18% for sheep and goat. Pooled data showed that at d 9 of ageing, meat tenderness improved (p = 0.0001) by 39.25% (from 39.54 N to 24.02 N) compared to tenderness of meat which was not aged at day one of slaughter. The present study demonstrated the differences in chemical composition and quality attributes of meat existing between sheep and goats originated from East Africa.

Slaughter performance and meat quality of intact and castrated Washera sheep kept under feedlot condition

“…Mohammad et al (2013) reported 76.2% moisture, 17.79% protein, 3.02% fat and 1.22% ash contents for sheep aged greater than 6 months and 75.12% moisture, 18.31% protein, 3.91% fat and 1.33% ash content for yearling sheep. The differences in chemical constituents of meat between studies are related to feed type and feeding regime (Guerrero et al, 2013), animals age, breed and sex differences (Shija et al, 2013).…”

Meat quality of lambs (hair and wool) slaughtered at different live weights

“…As it has been observed in other breeds (Hernández-Castellano 2010;Majdoub-Mathlouthi et al 2013) between 45 min and 24 h after slaughter the pH decreased. This could be due to glycogen conversion into lactate and H+ (Shija et al 2013). An ultimate pH value greater than 5.8 is regarded as undesirable (Young et al 2004); therefore pH values after 24 h in CB and CHB can be considered acceptable.…”

“…Fahmy et al (1992) have shown that meat characteristics such as hardness or colour parameters are related to IMF content. Shear force below 4 kg (40 N) equates an acceptable level of tenderness of the meat in Australian markets (Shija et al 2013). Hopkins et al (2006) concluded that sheep meat with shear force values less than 49 N is considered as tender.…”

Global agriculture as an energy transfer system and the energy yield of world agriculture 1961–2013

“…For all crops, livestock/poultry, fisheries/aquaculture categories used for this study, proximate compositions were acquired from international food composition tables or other published compendia and primary sources .…”