Slaughter traits and meat quality characteristics of five strains of Tanzania shorthorn zebu
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Date
2020
Authors
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
A study was carried out to assess the suitability of five strains of Tanzania Shorthorn Zebu
(TSZ) for production of quality meat. It involved assessing requirements for quality beef
by the niche market followed by assessing the potential of five strains of TSZ to produce
quality beef. A survey was carried out in Dar es Salaam (January and February 2019) to
assess beef quality attributes required by the niche market. A total of 135 respondents
(beef processors, retailers and consumers) were included. The potential of TSZ strains
namely Iringa Red (IR), Gogo (GG), Mbulu (MB), Maasai (MS) and Singida White (SW)
to produce quality beef was also assessed. A total of 50 animals aged 3-4 years were
sampled from slaughter slabs in five districts. Slaughter traits, physicochemical properties
and the response to post-mortem ageing were studied. Freshness, slight intramuscular fat
(IMF), medium subcutaneous fat (SCF) and medium tenderness were the quality attributes
preferred by retailers and consumers while the maturity of the animal, hygiene, safety and
freshness were preferred by processors. The results showed overall means for heart girth
(HG), estimated slaughter weight (ESW), empty body weight (EBW), hot carcass weight
(HCW) and dressing percentage (DP) were 138.1cm, 201.4 kg, 171.4 kg, 101.4 kg and
50.6%, respectively. IR strain had the highest carcass measurement values while MB had
the lowest. Non-significant effects of strain on muscle % and fat % of 6th rib dissection
were observed. Overall moisture content (MC) of Longismuss thoracis (LT) muscle was
72.53%, dry matter (DM) was 27.47%, ash was 4.56%, crude protein (CP) was 22.83%
and ether extract (EE) was 4.77% while mean ultimate pH was 5.64. The colour change
was significant for strains and ageing time. The drip loss and cooking loss were influenced
by ageing, their values decreased with ageing time. Tenderness was lower for SW and
higher for IR with the average of 62.35 N and it was decreased with ageing time.
Description
Masters Thesis
Keywords
Slaughter traits, Tanzania, Ageing, Beef quality, Consumers requirements, Zebu