HISTOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF HIDES AND CROSSBREEDS BY ITALIAN BEEF BREEDBULLS AND THE PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES OF THE LEATHER

The introduction of new breeds for commercial crossing requires an ins ight into changes in the histological structure of the skins. Experime nts were carried out on crossbreeds from Black-and-White cows x Italia n beef bulls: Piemontese, Chianina and Marcjigiana, the control group being young Black-and-White bulls. At slaughter, skin tissue samples w ere collected for histological and ultrastructural studies. The skins of the Italian beef bull breed crosses were characterised by a very we ll formed splicing of the collagen fibres and a dense network of elast in fibres. A higher proportion of the reticular layer (corium) and the grain sublayer (upper part of the grain layer, above the sebaceous an d sweat glands) (8) were found in the dermis of the crossbreeds. This considerably increased the values of the mechanical parameters of the skins. Differences in the tensile and tear strengths of the leather be tween the Piemontese and Marchigiana crosses were statistically signif icant (P < 0.05), The properties of the interweaving and spacing of th e collagen fibres were highly correlated to the tensile and tear stren gths.