A Comparative Study of Carcass Characteristics and Meat Composition of Irani (Baluchi), Somali (Barbera Blackhead) and Sudani Desert Sheep

Abstract

The study was conducted to compare the effect of breed on carcass characteristics and meat composition of three sheep breeds namely Irani (Bluchi), Somali (Berbera blackhead) and Sudani (Desert sheep) breeds. Fifty five sheep of average weight 24.5 kilograms , were divided into three groups according to breed, group A consisted of 20 Irani sheep (Bluchi), group B consisted of 20 Somali sheep (barbera blackhead) and group C consisted of 15 Sudani (Sudani desert sheep). The breed had highly significant effect (p<0.01) on the weight of blood, skin, leg, head stomach full, intestine full and empty, lung and trachea, liver, bone, meat, moisture percent and protein percent. While it had significant effect (p<0.05) on the weight of heart, kidney and cold carcass weight. On the other hand the breeds showed no significant effects on the weight of stomach empty, carcass hot, shrinkage and on the percentage of hot dressing, cold dressing , ash and fat. Sudani desert sheep had heavier blood weight, leg weight, head weight, lung and trachea weight, heart weight , bone weight, meat weight, carcass cold weight, and protein percent than the other two groups, while Irani breed had heavier skin, intestinal full and empty weight and liver weight X than that of the other two groups , on the other hand Somali breed had heavier stomach full weight and moisture content than that of the other two groups. No significant (p>0.05) differences between the breed groups were observed for stomach empty weight, carcass hot weight, hot dressing percentage, cold dressing percentage, shrinkage weight, ash percentage and fat percentage