The Effect of Gender on Slaughtering Performance and Meat Quality in Sunite Sheep

The purpose of this experiment was to study the effect of gender on the slaughter performance and meat quality of Sunite sheep.Twelve 6-month-old Sunite rams and ewes at the same body condition were selected from the grazing herds of the Sunite Zuoqi Improvement Station Breeding Farm to determine their slaughter performance and meat quality.The slaughter test results showed that the bone quality and bone-meat ratio of the rams were significantly higher than that of the ewes (P<0.05),and the net meat quality and net meat rate of the ewes were significantly higher than that of the rams (P<0.05).The results of meat quality traits showed that the drip loss of ewes were significantly lower than that of rams (P<0.05),and the other indicators were not significantly different (P>0.05).The results of conventional nutrient composition of muscles showed that the intramuscular moisture content of the rams were significantly higher than that of the ewes (P<0.05),and the intramuscular fat content of the ewes were significantly higher than that of the rams (P<0.05),while the other indicators were not significantly different (P>0.05).The results of amino acid determination showed that the essential amino acid ratio in muscle of sunite ewes were significantly higher than that of rams (P<0.05),but there was no significant difference between the rams and ewes that formed the precursor amino acid content of meat flavor (P>0.05).Fatty acid measurement results showed that the saturated fatty acid ratio in the subcutaneous fat of rams was significantly lower than that of ewes (P<0.05).There was no significant difference in the ratio of saturated fatty acids in muscle fat and tail fat (P>0.05);The ratio of monounsaturated fatty acids in ewes tail fat was significantly higher than that of rams (P<0.05).The ratio of monounsaturated fatty acids in subcutaneous fat and intermuscular fat was not significantly different between rams and ewes (P>0.05).The ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids in intermuscular fat of rams was significantly higher than that of ewes (P<0.05),and there was no significant difference in the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in subcutaneous fat and tail fat (P>0.05).In summary,it showed that gender had a certain influence on the slaughter performance and meat quality of 6-month-old Sunite sheep.