Effect of birth type on slaughter characteristics of Ile-de-France lambs

Evgeniya Achkakanova, Ivan G. Penchev

Abstract: The subject of the scientific research are male lambs of the Ile de France breed, divided into 2 groups of 8 each, with different birth types – singletons and twins/triplets, fattened intensively for a period of 60 days. The lambs were slaughtered in a licensed slaughterhouse, according to Bulgarian State Standard (BSS), at 120 days of age. Four lambs from each group were slaughtered with an average live weight closest to the group average. The main slaughter parameters, cuts, offal and morphometric measurements of the carcasses were studied. The data were processed according to the methods of variation statistics with Data Analysis, EXCEL, 2016 of Microsoft. The bodyweight at slaughter (BWS) of the lambs born as singles of the first group was 56.375 kg, and of the lambs of the second group was 52.725 kg. The weight of the cooled carcass of the lambs of the first group is 26.000 kg, and of the lambs of the second group – 24.675 kg. A significant difference was found in the net live weight, in the weight of the foremast and stomach, and the large length of the carcass. This, in turn, does not affect the obtained slaughter yield and compactness of them carcass, which are almost the same in both studied groups. From the conducted studies, we can conclude that the birth type factor does not have a significant impact on the slaughter performance of the slaughtered carcasses, but confirms the compensatory growth opportunities at a young age of the animals of the breed in case of multiple births. The manifestation of compensatory growth in lambs born as twins enables the realization of high growth at an early age and is an important indicator of the economic results of breeding the breed.

Keywords: carcass dimensions; carcass qualities; Ile de France breed

Date published: 2023-04-27