QUALITY ANALYSIS OF MEAT OF SLAUGHTER LAM BS

The flesh of the most valuable parts of dressed carcass (loin - muscul us longissimus lumborum et thoracis, leg - musculus semitendinosus, ra ck - musculus triceps brachii) was subjected to analysis in terms of n utrition and quality in the meat breed Charollais (CH) and in the dual -purpose breed Stavropol Merino (SM). Lambs selected for control slaug hter were reared on pasture and received minimum doses of grain. The l ambs of experimental group were slaughtered at the age of 170 days and those of control group at the age of 168 days, while the variation ra nge of age in the whole set of the animals under observation was 10 da ys. A statistically significant difference in growth rate was determin ed between the slaughtered groups of animals. The lambs of CH breed ha d the average daily weight gain amounting to 221 g and the lambs of SM breed to 143 g. In comparison with SM breed, the CH breed had in m. s enitendinosus (Tab. I) an insignificantly higher dry matter content, l ower fat content at the significance level, statistically highly signi ficantly (P less than or equal to 0.01) higher protein content and ins ignificantly higher ash content. An insignificantly higher dry matter content, higher protein content (P less than or equal to 0.01) and ins ignificantly lower ash content were determined in the flesh of loin (T ab. II) and rack (Tab. III). The relatively highest energy value was f ound in the Charollais breed in the loin (549.10 J - Tab. II), but in the leg (Tab. I) and rack (Tab. III) it was the SM breed that had the higher energy value, 535.58 J and 535.82 J, respectively. Water retent ion in the flesh of the particular carcass cuts had the values 4.55 to 7.82% in CH breed and from 3.87 to 6.75% in SM breed. More uniform re sults between the compared breeds and for the flesh of evaluated cuts were determined by assessment of meat color through the content of fle sh pigments and reflectance. Reflectance showed the statistically insi gnificantly darker meat in SM breed. The relatively highest difference s were demonstrated in rack flesh (Tab. VI). Determination of meat pH value in 48 hours after slaughter revealed more significant difference s between the breeds in the flesh of loin (P less than or equal to 0.0 1 - Tab. V) and in the flesh of rack and leg (P less than or equal to 0.05 - Tabs. VI and IV). A more significant difference between the mea ns of the breeds was found in the flesh of rack only (P less than or e qual to 0.05 - Tab. VI) in 72 hours after slaughter, while the differe nces in relative comparison of the particular cuts with pH(48) values significantly equated. Very small differences in the content of the co nnective tissue protein hydroxyproline can also be taken as significan t: the maximum level was determined in CH breed in m. senitendinosus ( Tab. IV) and m. triceps brachii (Tab. VI) -0.15 mg.