Some carcass traits and meat chemical characteristics of karadi lambs injected with testosterone enanthate

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of different injection doses of testosterone enanthate (TE) on some carcass traits and meat chemical characteristics of karadi lambs. Twenty-seven male lambs in weaning age and average live weight 28.5±3.4 kg of Karadi breed were allocated randomly by weight into three treatments (six lambs for each treatment), T1 (control) treatment, T2 was treated with 200 mg of TE injection (IM/week) and T3 was treated with 400 mg (IM/week) of it. All animals were feed with unified concentrate diet (table1) once a day (3% of lamb’s weight), ad libitum barley straw was provided and the water for all lambs was free. Each lamb was isolated in a separate pin. Three lambs of each treatment were chosen randomly and weighted then slaughtered humanly at the last of three different rearing periods (60, 90 and 120 days) from the study beginning. Several measurements have been taken such as hot, cold carcass weight, carcass length, carcass thorax circumference, thickness of fat, rib eye area, carcass cuts weight, offal weight, carcass and offal fat weight, longissimus dorsi approximate analysis. Results showed an increase in each: live, carcass, carcass cuts weights, rib eye area, carcass and offal fat, kidney, liver and lunge weight. Also there was a decrease in each: fat thickness, fat tail and testis weight with increased TE injection dose (between 200-400 mg).