title: Meat quality of "Galician Mountain" foals breed. Effect of sex, slaughter age and livestock production system.
abstract: The effects of sex, slaughter age (9 vs. 12 months) and livestock production system (freedom extensive system (FES) vs. semi extensive system (SES)) of "Galician Mountain" foals breed on meat quality from the Longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle were investigated. Forty-two foals had been used for this study, 19 (11 females and 8 males) were reared in a semi extensive system and weaned three months prior to slaughtering (8 and 11 were slaughtered at 9 and 12 months, respectively) while the other 23 (11 females and 12 males) were reared together with its mothers in a system in freedom and were slaughtered at the age of 9 months. The obtained results showed that there were no significant differences between the sexes and the slaughter age whereas the livestock production system was a significant variation source on intramuscular fat content and meat tenderness because SES foals showed 51.6% more of IMF and the improved meat tenderness achieved a shear force of <3 kg. In general, the meat from foals of the study at hand showed very lean meat (<0.3% in IMF) with a high protein content (>20.5%) and heme-iron (1.62 mg/100g meat) comparable to veal meat. Furthermore, the meat samples showed a higher luminosity (L*>40), a very good water holding capacity, measured by cooking losses (<18.3%), and a tenderness less than 4 kg. Thus, it can be classified as "very tender" meat.
authors.affiliation: Centro Tecnológico de la Carne de Galicia, Rúa Galícia No 4, Parque Tecnológico de Galicia, San Cibrao das Viñas, 32900 Ourense, Spain.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Franco
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Purriños
authors.forename: Santiago
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Crecente
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bermúdez
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lorenzo
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000367:Age Factors; D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D002417:Cattle; D003116:Color; D003296:Cooking; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000032:analysis*; D004044:Dietary Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006418:Heme / Q000032:analysis; D006736:Horses / Q000145:classification; D019266:Iron, Dietary / Q000032:analysis*; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000737:chemistry; D009753:Nutritive Value; D012737:Sex Factors; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats; D004044:Dietary Proteins; D019266:Iron, Dietary; D009124:Muscle Proteins; D006418:Heme