PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF MUTTON OF FATTENED INDIGENOUS SHEEP BREEDS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Twenty four male lambs: six each of Uda rams-UDA, West African Dwarf -WAD, Balami BAL and Yankassa rams-YAK with average weight of 23.94kg were fattened for a period of 90 days in the Livestock Section of the Farming System Research Programme of the National Cereals Research Institute. Prior to the trial, the rams were giving prophylactic treatment with coccidiostat and antihelmintics and were fed iso-calorie diets ad libidum in a confinement. The animals also had access to clean water and salt lick on free choice basis. Final Body Weight-FBW and Feed Conversion RatioFCR were measured using standard procedures. Three animals per breed were thereafter sacrificed to compare the relative percentage proportions of Bled Weight, Empty body Weight-EBW, Hot Carcass Weight-HCW and Dressing percentages-DP. Also evaluated were Lean-Meat yield (LMY), Meat to Bone Ratio-MBR and Total Fat Deposit-TFD in a Completely Randomised Design (CRD).The FBW (kg) of 40.08 and 38.78 for UDA and WAD were similar but significantly lower than 48.77 and 44.14
for BAL and YAk rams respectively. Also, FCR of 11.14 (UDA), 9.87 (WAD) and 11.64(YAK) were significantly higher than 8.89 (BAL). Even though all the rams elicited different Dressing percentages, no significant differences were observed across the treatments groups. However TFD of 12.63 in BAL rams was significantly higher than 10.87, 10.02 and 10.11 in UDA, YAK and WAD rams respectively. The study therefore concluded that BAL rams had faster growth, yielded more mutton and had highest TDF, suggesting that Balami rams will thrive well among the sheep breeds if fattened with
2.2Mcal/KgDM within a period of three months.