Evaluation of carcass quality of N’dama yearlings fed varying levels of oil palm slurry

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the carcass quality of N’Dama yearlings fed varying levels of oil palm slurry (OPS). Sixteen N’Dama yearlings were randomly assigned into four treatment groups (4/animals per group) and fed Panicum maximum supplemented with 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% OPS replacing wheat offal as treatments I, II, III and IV respectively. Three animals per group were slaughtered after 180 days of feeding to evaluate the carcasses for dressing percentage (DP), meat colour (MC), shear force (SF) and meat to bone ratio (MBR). The DP (%) of yearlings on treatment I (40.86) and IV (43.45) were similar and significantly lower than those on treatments II (49.19) and III (50.99) respectively. The scores for MC and SF for yearlings on treatments II, III and IV were similar and ranged from 6.00-7.00 and 5.03-5.27 respectively. However, these scores were significantly (P<0.05) higher than corresponding scores for MC (4.00) and SF (4.23) in treatment I. The MBR (5.56-12.50) increased significantly from treatments I to III after which it decreased to 7.69. Oil palm slurry can replace up to 20% of wheat offal in yearling diets with improvement in carcass quality.