Effect of sex and age on chemical composition of sheep, cattle and camel meat

Abstract

Meat is highly valuable food product for human consumption because it is a good source of all essential amino acids, crude protein, energy, minerals and major source of vitamins that necessary for human nutrition. The distinctive flavor, tenderness, choiceness and agreeable make it one of the preferred food. In this study three types of meat samples, these are sheep, beef and camel (male and female) with different age group (young, medium and old) were selected and allotted to three experimental groups (treatments). The study was conducted to assess the effects of age and sex on chemical composition for different types of meat. A (3×3×2) factorial arrangement in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was conducted. The study showed highly significant differences (P≤0.001) among different treatments. Camel meat had scored the highest values of moisture, fiber, ash and (F+) while sheep recorded the lowest value. Sheep meat tended to have the highest values of crude protein, fat, (Ca), and (K+) content while camel meat recorded the lowest values. With regard to the age group the study showed that young age group had obtained the highest values of crude protein and (Ca) contents while old age group scored the less values. Medium age group had reported the highest values of moisture, fat, ash and (K+) content followed by the old age group. Concerning interaction effects of meat type, sex and age group female sheep with medium age (FSM) had reported the highest values of moisture while female sheep with young age (FSY) and female beef with young age (FBY) revealed the highest values of protein content. On other hand female beef of young age (FBY) and female sheep of medium age (FSM) scored the highest values of fat content. Irrespective of animal type, female meat of medium age tended to have better values; due to the results we recommended that selecting female medium age group for producing meat with highly quality attributes.