title: Growth at fattening and carcass characteristics of D'man, Sardi and meat-sire crossbred lambs slaughtered at two stages of maturity.
abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate growth at fattening, carcass characteristics and carcass measurements of 19 Sardi, 19 D'man and 52 meat-sire crossbred lambs of both sexes slaughtered at 50 and 70 % of mature weight. Crossbred lambs were born from Sardi, D'man and F1 Sardi × D'man ewes mated to meat-breed rams (Ile de France and Mérinos Précoce). Lambs of each group (breed type by sex) were chosen at random and slaughtered either at 50 or 70 % of mature weight. Sardi and D'man purebred lambs had significantly lower growth at fattening, pre-slaughter live weight, empty body weight, hot carcass weight, carcass conformation, carcass fatness, red offal, white offal, sub-products and non-carcass fat than meat-sire crossbred lambs. Differences were 42.2 g/day, 5.03 kg, 4.46 kg, 2.57 kg, 0.96, 0.59, 0.18 kg, 0.39 kg, 0.63 kg and 0.12 kg, respectively. B and Wr measurements of meat-sire crossbred lambs were higher than those of Sardi and D'man purebred lambs, whereas the F measurement was in favour of purebreds. Likewise, CC, G/F and Wr/Th indices of meat-sire crossbreds were higher than those of purebreds; however, the opposite was observed for L/G and Th/G indices. Maternal heterosis was positive and not significant for most traits, negative and not significant for few traits (P > 0.05), but negative and significant for the proportion of sub-products (P < 0.05). It was concluded that growth and carcass characteristics of local sheep can be significantly improved by terminal crossbreeding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Production and Biotechnology, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, PO Box 6202, Rabat-Instituts, 10101, Rabat, Morocco. i.boujenane@iav.ac.ma.
authors.forename: Ismaïl
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Boujenane
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000821:Animal Feed; D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition; D001835:Body Weight; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat; D009018:Morocco; D012756:Sheep / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014329:Tropical Climate
keywords: Carcass measurements; Carcass weight; Crossbreeding; D’man breed; Fattening; Meat breed; Sardi breed; Sheep