Effect of Carob Pulp (Ceratonia Siliqua L.) on Fattening Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Meat Quality of Moroccan Breed Deroua Lambs

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of incorporating different levels of carob pulp (CP) on fattening performance, carcass characteristics and meat qualityof the Moroccan sheep breed Deroua. Thirty-six entire maleMoroccan breed Deroua lambs with aninitial body weight of 23.5±3.1 kg and age 120±10 days, were randomly divided into three diet’streatmentsof 12 animals: T0(0%CP), T1(10%CP) and T2(20%CP) containing 0, 10 and 20 % of CP, respectively. The experiment lasted 80 days, including 5 days of adaptation to different diets. Lambs were weighed every 15 days, while feed intake was determineddaily. At the end of the experiment, 27 lambs (9per treatment) were slaughtered to determinecarcass characteristics and meat quality. Final body weight and average daily gain (P<0.05) were affected by treatment diet. The inclusion of 10% CP led to a decrease in feed conversion ratio and feeding costs. Carcass characteristics were not affected by diets (P>0.05),except, in case of mesenteric fat (P<0.05) with superiority recorded in treatment diet T1(10%CP). Meat quality parameters were not affected by diets. The meat of lambs feddiets T1 and T2 tended to be lighter in color and less red than those fed diet T0. The results of this work showed that carob pulp can be used as an alternative feedstuff from fattening lambs to reduce feeding costs without affecting fattening performance.