Relative growth of body fat depots and carcass composition in Churra da Terra Quente ewes with
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Data
2009
Autores
Silva, Severiano
Santos, Virgínia
Gomes, M. J.
Azevedo, Jorge Manuel Teixeira de
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Resumo
The autochthonous Churra da Terra Quente (CTQ) sheep breed is reared in Northeast of Portugal under
extensive production systems. These systems frequently involve relevant body composition changes due to
the storing and mobilization of body reserves. However, information regarding the range of tissue changes
is lacking. The objectives of this study were: examine the carcass composition variation and understand the
fat depots distribution in CTQ ewes with different body condition score (BCS). Thirty seven non-lactating
and non-pregnant CTQ ewes with 42.3±7.5 kg body weight (BW) and a BCS range from 1.5 to 4.5 were
used. The BCS was obtained using the system based on a scale of 1 to 5 scores with a middle scale point.
After slaughter, internal fat depots (omental- OF, mesenteric- MF, perirenal- PF and pelvic) were obtained
and the carcasses were entirely dissected into muscle, fat (subcutaneous fat-SF and intermuscular fat-IF) and
bone. Carcass composition and fat depots variations were analyzed by ANOVA. Allometric coefficients of
the fat depots in relation to total fat were established using the Huxley equation with a log transformation.
Carcass composition and internal fat varied considerably with BCS from 1.5 to 4.5 points. Muscle weight
varied between 6.8 and 13.4 kg (P<0.05) and fat weight varied between 1.6 and 10.9 kg (P<0.05). Internal
fat also exhibit a large variation (0.7 to 9.3 kg) (P<0.05). These findings reflect the variation of BW and
clearly show that fat is the most variable tissue. In relation to total fat, OF and PF depots grew more rapidly
(b=1.25 and 1.39, b>1, P<0.05, respectively), SF and IF grew at the same rate (b close to 1) and MF and
pelvic fat depots grew more slowly (allometric growth coefficients <1).