East African Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences

Qualities of Primal Beef Cuts from Arsi, Boran, Harar, and Crosses of Holstein Friesian Cattle Breeds

2024-07-25T07:06:21-04:00

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of breed, age, and aging duration on instrumental qualities of major primal beef cuts. For this purpose, a total of 24 bulls from Arsi, Boran, Harar, and Holstein Friesian (HF) crossbred cattle breeds slaughtered at the ages of 2-3 and 4-5 years were used. Experimental animals were fattened at the beef farm of Haramaya University based on a feed diet containing 40% concentrate and 60% roughages for 90 days duration. After slaughter, the carcass was fabricated and samples of major primal meat cuts were collected for evaluation of Warner Bratzler Shear Force (WBSF), water holding capacity (WHC), pH, cooking loss (CL), and color (L*, a*, b*) parameters. A total of 96 samples from chuck, loin, rib, and round were evaluated after aging meat samples for 5, 10, 14 and 21 days. The result of the study revealed that breed and age were significant sources of variation (P<0.05) for Warner Bratzler Shear Force value of meat cuts. Most beef cuts from Boran bulls exhibited lower Warner Bratzler Shear Force value than Arsi, Harar, and HF crosses. Loin cuts from Boran breeds were tender over other cuts (WBSF, 25.78N) however, round cuts from Arsi breed were the toughest cuts (41.61N). The lowest value of WBSF was obtained from bulls slaughtered at 2-3 compared to 4-5 years of age. WHC of primal cuts was significantly influenced by age at slaughter (P<0.05) and aging duration (P<0.0001). Breed of cattle was a significant source of variation (P<0.05) on pH value of chuck and loin cuts while aging duration was significant source of variation (P<0.0001) on pH of most primal cuts. Cooking loss of primal cuts was significantly influenced by breed (P<0.05) and aging days (P<0.0001). The lightness (L*) and the redness (a*) of the primal cuts were significantly influenced (P<0.001) by aging days while breeds of cattle had significant effect (P<0.05) the yellowness (b*) of primal cuts. The result of the study suggests the possibilities of using primal beef cuts from Boran, Harar, and HF-crosses for export purposes, particularly, when slaughtered at age 2-3 years.

Herd Management and Breeding Practices of Indigenous Goats in Selected Districts of South Gondar Zone, Ethiopia

2024-07-25T18:00:48-04:00

The study was conducted with the aim to assess herd management and breeding practices of western highland goat types in Lay-Gayint and Semada Districts. Household survey, focused group dissociation and field observation methods were used to collect the information. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 180 households, who own goats. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Simple descriptive statistics, ranking trial and chi-square test of SAS ver. 9.40 were used to analyze the collected quantitative and qualitative data. The result of the study revealed mixed farming system was the main production system in the study area. The primary purpose of keeping goat was for cash income across the study areas. Drought and feed shortage were the main production constraints in the study areas. Reproductive performances evaluation works of this study indicated that age at firs maturity of male goat in the Lay-Gayint and Semada districts were 7.85±1.84 and 8.53±2.32 month, while for female goat, it was 7.39±0.88 and 8.32±1.32 months, respectively. In addition, age at first kidding and average kidding interval in Lay-Gayint and Semada goats were (10.48± 1.27 vs 7.01±1.42) and (10.21±1.61 vs 6.94±1.81) months, respectively. The average life span and kid crop per doe per life span for Lay-Gayint and Semada goats were (13.77±2.83 years vs 15.91±3.72 kids) and (11.75±3.07 years vs 14.89±4.16 kids), respectively. On the other hand, the average reproductive life span for Lay-Gayint and Semada male goats were 3.39±0.49 and 3.30±1.24 years, respectively. In the study area, appearance and color were the main selection criteria for both male and female goats. The common breeding practice in the study areas was natural and uncontrolled mating systems. Physical appearance, coat color and performance were used to identify the future generation in the study areas as the two districts share common boundaries and hence, they shared indigenous knowledge about goat breeding and management. From this study, it was concluded that farmers have relatively similar production and breeding objectives. Moreover, the reproductive performances of both Lay-Gayint and Semada goats are similar except for the average lifespan, in which Lay-Gayint goats are better than Semada. The study findings put a baseline for understanding about production and breeding practices of both goat breeds as the first step in designing a sustainable breeding programme.

Identification of Indigenous Sheep Production Systems and Major Objective Traits of Sheep Producers at Anfillo and Sibu Sire Districts, Western Oromia, Ethiopia

2024-07-25T18:09:01-04:00

The study was undertaken at Anfillo and Sibu Sire districts of Oromia Region, Ethiopia to identify sheep production systems, major objective traits and major production constraints. A total of 146 sheep producer households (73 from each district) who have at least three sheep were involved in the study. Semi-structured questionnaire, secondary data and personal observation were used to capture data. Most of household heads (82.90%) involved in the current study were males. The overall average sheep flock size and landholding per household obtained in the current study were 7.95±2.25 and 2.33±2.51ha, respectively. The primary objective of sheep rearing was income generation followed by meat production. The most common housing types in the study areas were separate houses purposively built for sheep, followed by sheds constructed attached to the family house. In addition, some of the respondents (17.8%) also indicated that sheep shared family house. Natural pasture and fallow land were the most important feed sources both in dry and wet seasons. Most common source of water (80.8%) in the study districts was river. The overall mean age at first service for male and female were 7.88±0.08 and 7.65±0.09 months, respectively. The mean age at first lambing, lambing interval and litter size/twinning rate obtained in the current study were 13.66±0.09 months, 7.85±0.07 months and 1.46±0.05, respectively. Appearance (I=0.32), mothering ability (I=0.26) and twining rate (I=0.19) were some of the most important attributes used for female selection; while appearance (I=0.33), growth rate (I=0.32) and tail size (I=0.21) were the most preferred traits for breeding male selection. Feed shortages (I=0.32) and diseases and parasites (I=0.25) were the major constraints that influence sheep production in both districts. The production and reproduction performances obtained from owners in the current study were encouraging provided that the constraints indicated in the current study are addressed.

Effects of Season and Age on Eating Quality of Beef from Guraghe Cattle Breed Slaughtered in Public Abattoirs of Hadiya Zone, Ethiopia

2024-07-25T20:00:47-04:00

Eating quality of beef from Guraghe cattle breeds slaughtered in public abattoirs at Hadiya Zone of Ethiopia under different age and season were evaluated in this study. For this purpose, a total of 48 meat samples which were stratified into three age groups (4-5, 5-7, and 7-9 years) and two seasons (wet and dry) were collected from longissimus-dorsi (LD) muscle between 12^th and 13^th ribs. Quality parameters such as initial pH (pHi) and ultimate pH (pHu), instrumental tenderness using Warner Bratzler Shear Force Device (WBSF), eating quality of meat using sensory panel, water holding capacity (WHC), and cooking loss (CL) were evaluated after aging the meat samples for 14 days. The overall mean values of WBSF, sensory tenderness, juiciness, flavor, pHi, pHu, WHC, and CL were 31.46±1.37, 7.08±0.08, 7.07±0.07, 7.34±0.10, 6.73±0.02, 5.63±0.02,70.83±0.15, and 17.55±0.68, respectively. Age at slaughter and season had significantly influenced (P<0.05) Warner Bratzler Shear Force value. The interaction of age and season significantly influenced juiciness (P< 0.001) and the water holding capacity (P <0.05). The percentages of dark firm dry (DFD) meat in the wet and dry seasons were 25% and 8.33%, respectively. Instrumental tenderness (WBSF) showed high significant negative correlation with sensory tenderness and high significant positive correlation with flavor and Juiciness. Cooking loss showed high significant positive correlation with pHi in the wet season. From the study, it was concluded that eating quality of beef from Guraghe cattle breed was tender. The younger the cattle the better the quality of beef. The better quality of beef in the dry compared to the wet season justifies the need to identify and minimize the degree of stress due to draft service that possibly affected quality of the beef in the latter season. From the study, it was recommended that beef quality improvement strategy in the region should consider mechanisms that minimize multi-stress factors in the wet season and encourage slaughter of the cattle at a young age.