title: Effect of diet, slaughter weight and sex on instrumental and sensory meat characteristics in rabbits.
abstract: The effect of the fattening diet, slaughter weight and sex on meat quality was studied in a total of 156 hybrid rabbits. After weaning, rabbits were divided into three groups of 52 animals each (50% male and 50% female), that were allocated for three weeks to one of three commercial diets containing low (14.28%, A), medium (18.04%, B) and high (20.48%, C) fibre content with decreasing energy levels. Animals were slaughtered at 2.0 and 2.3kg after the consumption of a common pre-slaughter non-medicated concentrate and pH, colour, water-holding capacity (WHC), Warner-Bratzler shear test and sensory analysis were all measured. Meat from animals fed with low fibre and high energy was the least luminous. Rabbits slaughtered at 2.0kg showed more yellowness than at 2.3kg at 0min. In both traits, these differences did not prevail after 15min of blooming. Globally, meat from males was more coloured than that of the females, both at 0 and 15min of blooming. No significant differences were found for pH, WHC or shear test for the individual effects. In the sensory analysis, rabbit and grass odours were more intense at 2.0kg than at 2.3kg of slaughter weight.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Producción Animal y Ciencia de los Alimentos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Miguel Servet 177, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Carrilho
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Campo
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Olleta
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Beltrán
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: López