Influence of castration on the centesimal composition and cholesterol content of meat from alpacas (Vicugna pacos)

Influencia de la castración en la composición química de la carne de alpacas (Vicugna pacos)

Objetive. Determinate the influence of bilateral castration of young alpacas on the centesimal composition and cholesterol content in muscle tissue of five anatomical regions. Materials and methods. Twenty male animals, 1.5 years old, of the Huacaya breed, were selected, forming two groups of 10 animals: experimental and control. Those in the experimental group underwent bilateral castration and those in the control group remained “whole”. After six months, all animals were slaughtered and muscle tissue samples were taken from five anatomical regions: neck, arm, ribs, loin, and leg. Moisture was determined by oven drying to constant weight, total fat by the Soxhlet method, crude protein by the Kjeldahl method, ashes by muffle calcination at 550˚C and cholesterol by the colorimetric method after fat extraction. with chloroform/methanol (2:1). Results. Fat content is higher in castrated (2.28%) than in intact (1.82%) (P≤0.01) and varies between different anatomical regions (P≤0.05); humidity is higher in intact animals (76.14%) than in castrated ones (75.45%) (P≤0.01), but similar between the different anatomical regions (P>0.05); there are no differences in terms of protein, ash and cholesterol content (P>0.05), with the average being 20.39%, 1.13% and 55.56 mg/100 g, respectively. Conclusions. It was evidenced that there is a certain effect of castration on the centesimal composition of alpaca meat from young males by increasing the fat content and decreasing humidity.

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