investigation of ostrich carcass yield, body composition and weight losses during post-mortem period as influenced by sex and slaughter conditions and its economical evaluation

determination of the body composition weight due to the growing ostrich farms in iran is a beneficial subject. it is so important for dependent industries to know the effects of sex and slaughter conditions on carcass quality. in present study, the mean value for hot yield (55.93%) was higher than cold yield (54.70%). blood, feather and skin were evaluated as the maximum and the hide as the minimum body weight parts. effect of sex on the body composition weight was insignificant (p>0.05). the mean value for cooling loss in carcasses was 2.2% that did not influence by sex significantly (p>0.05). the average values for drip loss in 1 and 7 days of postmortem were 1.52% and 1.68% respectively. the mean value for cooking loss in male and female ostriches were calculated 31.85% and 33.55% respectively while this parameter in stunned ostriches were evaluated 33.30% and in non-stunned one were 32.10% (p>0.05). although drip and cooking losses increased during 14 days, there were no significant effects of ageing, sex and slaughter conditions (p>0.05).