Abstract
This experiment aimed to describe the influence of production system on the following characteristics from seven Spanish goat breeds: carcass weight, dressing percentage, head weight, viscera weight, kidney fat weight, fatness score, carcass length, leg length, rump perimeter, rump width, kidney fat colour and tissue composition of shoulder. Experiment involved 201 male, single-birth suckling kids from five meat and two dairy breeds. Animals from meat breeds were slaughtered at two targets carcass weights (light, 4 kg; heavy, 7 kg). In dairy breeds, half of the animals were reared with dam’s milk and the other half with a milk replacer and all of them were slaughtered at light weight (4 kg). Statistics consisted in two GLM, means for each variable, a PCA to study relationships between variables and a discriminant analysis to compare breeds. In dairy breeds, breed had greater influence than milk diet, with breed effect being particularly strong for kids that were fed with natural milk. In meat breeds, slaughter weight was more important than breed and many significant interactions were found between both effects. All carcass traits were closely related to each other and to slaughter weight. Slaughter weight was also positively related to dressing percentage and to fatness degree. Discriminant analysis explained 76.1% of variability and separated dairy breeds, with well-fattened, medium-shaped carcasses, from meat breeds, with good conformations and medium fatness degrees. Hence, carcass traits were able to group breeds by diary or meat type.
Highlights
Goats are regarded worldwide as an important species due to their contribution to the development of both rural zones and people (Dubeuf et al, 2004)
In 2009 Spain had around 2.3 million heads of goat (FAOSTAT, 2010; http://faostat.fao.org), 68% of which corresponded to dairy breeds (MARM, 2011; http://www.magrama.gob.es/es/ganaderia/estadisticas)
Differences between breeds were found for carcass weight, viscera weight, kidney fat weight, carcass and leg length and rump width, whereas milk diet only affected viscera weight
Summary
Goats are regarded worldwide as an important species due to their contribution to the development of both rural zones and people (Dubeuf et al, 2004). Spain’s 22 indigenous goat breeds (MARM, 2011; http://www.magrama.gob.es/es/ganaderia/estadisticas) have specific genetic and are reared in a wide diversity of ecosystems, depending on the breed: dairy breeds are generally reared intensively whereas meat breeds are primarily reared extensively or semi-extensively. Given that goat meat has an insignificant position in terms of overall farm production, little attention has been paid to it and, Spanish and international literature on goat carcass and meat quality is very scarce. This lack of knowledge of the particularities of the species has placed many Spanish breeds in a situation where they are on the brink of extinction, posing a real risk of losing valuable genetic heritage. It was considered fundamental to study carcass and meat characteristics of the different Spanish goat breeds, analysing the specific characteristics of each breed and highlighting their productive potential
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