Meat yield and carcass quality in Cornigliese sheep breed: preliminary data.

Aim of the study was to describe some traits related to meat production and carcass quality in Cornigliese sheep, a local breed (about 650 heads) reared in Parma province. On 72 subjects (47 females, 25 males) divided into two age-classes (43 aged >1 year, 29 aged between 6 months and 1 year), slaughtered and sectioned by the same staff, the liveweight was recorded, as well as the weight of carcass, skin, head and offal; on the left half-carcass the weight of shoulder, thigh, neck, loin, ribs and fat and lean trimmings was A sample cut (first 4 thoracic vertebrae) was collected to assess the incidence of lean, fat and bone. Data were analyzed by ANOVA with sex, age and interaction as fixed factors; for slaughter data, carcass weight, nested within age-class, was used as a covariate. Least squares means for liveweight (kg), carcass weight (kg) and slaughter yield (%) were affected by age-class (resp. 78.2, 33.1, 41.10 for adults; 53.3, 22.2, 47.4 for youngs; P<0.05); adults showed higher yield than youngs for skin (13.41 vs 11.39; P=0.06). The carcass compactness index (carcass weight/carcass length) was higher in youngs than in adults (0.353 vs 0.333; P<0.05). Yields of shoulder, thigh and lean trimmings were higher in males (16.73%, 30.98%, 9.32%) than in females (15.63%, 27.71%, 7.35%), as fat trimmings were higher in females (19.50%) than in males (12.31%) (P<0.05). The percentage composition of the sample cut showed an effect of sex on the content of muscle and fat tissues (males: 62.77 and 6.82; females 59.79 and 11.01, resp.; P<0.05) and an effect of age-class on the content of muscle and bone tissues (adults: 64.72 and 25.32; youngs: 57.84 and 31.48, resp.; P<0.05). The muscle/fat ratio was higher in males than in females (9.70 vs 5.47; P<0.05) and in adults than in youngs (9.71 vs 5.46; P<0.05). In conclusion the Cornigliese sheep, in the current conditions of use, can be considered as an extremely late breed, with high weights at slaughter, low carcass yields and high incidence of bone in the carcasses, particularly in those of animals slaughtered between 6 months and one year.