Carcass and meat of Santa Inês lambs and crosses with Dorper or Texel: A meta-analysis

Canal y carne de corderos Santa Inés y cruces con Dorper o Texel: Un meta-análisis

Objective. To evaluate the quantitative characteristics of the carcass and chemical composition of the meat of purebred lambs Santa Inés (SI) and crosses with Dorper (DO-SI) or Texel (TX-SI), feedlot finished, through a meta-analysis. Materials and methods. Virtual databases such as Google Scholar, Science Direct and Scielo were used to select cientific articles published from 2000 to 2019. Keywords such as genotype, lambs, carcass characteristics and meat quality, both in Spanish, Portuguese and English were used as criteria for the inclusion of articles. From each genetic group were evaluated: animal performance, quantitative characteristics of the carcass, carcass cuts and chemical composition of the meat. These variables were included in the analysis from 36 scientific articles. Results. Final body weight, hot carcass weight, cold carcass yield and muscle percentage do not differ between the different genetic groups evaluated. DO-SI lambs showed higher dry matter intake, daily weight gain, loin eye area and loin percentage. Chemical composition was not influenced by the genetic groups. Conclusions. In a tropical and subtropical environment, purebred lambs SI feedlot finished have quantitative characteristics of the carcass and chemical composition similar to lambs DO-SI and TX-SI.

Keywords: Breeds, carcass yield, feedlot, meat quality, sheep (Source: CAB).