Relationships between chemical composition of meat from carcass cuts and the whole carcass in Iranian fattailed sheep as affected by breed and feeding level

To investigate the relationship between chemical composition of meat from the carcass cuts and thewhole carcass, 48 nine-month-old randomly selected ram lambs of Ghezel and Mehraban (24 rams per breed)were used in a trial arranged as a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with two breeds and two feeding levels (high andlow), in a completely randomized design. After 80 days, all animals were slaughtered and the right side of thecarcass was cut into the leg, shoulder, back, neck, brisket and flap joints. Dry matter (DM), crude protein(CP), crude fat and ash were determined in meat from individual cuts and combined meat of all cuts (carcassmeat). In general, average meat composition was not significantly affected by breed, feeding level and theirinteraction. Significant correlations were found between chemical composition of meat in most carcass cutsand carcass meat. Carcass DM in Ghezel sheep was highly correlated (Pback (r = 0.74) meat DM. In Mehraban sheep, back meat DM showed the highest correlation with carcassmeat DM (r = 0.84, P0.80, P0.76) and Mehraban (r = 0.84). In Ghezel, correlation coefficients of carcass meat ash and other parameterswere generally small and non-significant. In Mehraban, carcass meat ash showed a small correlation withshoulder ash (r = 0.58, Pwhole, chemical composition of the meat in the back joint showed the highest correlation coefficients withthe corresponding parameters in the carcass, and may be used as a good predictor of carcass composition inthese breeds. Regression analysis of the data indicated that percentages of fat and protein in back meataccounted for about 65% of total variation in carcass meat fat and protein.