Effect of management system on the regional composition and offal distribution in Blanca Andaluza goat kids

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of two management systems (conventional vs. organic) on regional composition and offal distribution of Blanca Andaluza goat kids. Twenty-four male kids (12 from a conventional system and 12 from an organic system) were used. Both groups came from twin born progeny with kindling’s occurring in October, 2006. They were raised with natural goat milk and slaughtered at 8.4 kg of average farm life weight. After chilling, carcasses were manually split down at the dorsal midline within 24 hours postexsanguination. The left side was divided into six standarized primal cuts (long leg, shoulder, neck, ribs, flanks and tail). The loin weight, kidney fat and pelvic fat were weighted. The same was done for the components of the offal distribution (kidneys, blood, skin, head, fore/hind feet, testis, penis, heart, lung/trachea, liver, spleen, gastro-intestinal tract and timus). The effect of production system was evaluated on each studied variable. Some differences between production systems were observed in pelvic fat (4.2 vs. 8.2 g; p<0.01), kidneys fat (23.0 vs. 41.1 g; p<0.001) and flanks (181.6 vs. 192.0 g) (p<0.05); with higher values in goat kids from the organic system. The results revealed differences (p<0.05) in long leg weight (653.2 vs. 588.7 g) and loin percentage contribution from left side carcass (5.71 vs. 3.90 %), with higher values in kids raised conventionally. Regarding the offal distribution, significant differences (p<0.05) in the left testis weight (4.1 vs. 3.2 g), blood (410.0 vs. 354.2 g) and head (513.3 vs. 530.0 g) were observed. Likewise, management systems affected (p<0.001) heart weight (47.7 vs. 36.4 g) and liver weight (184.0 vs. 153.1 g for conventional and organic systems; P<0.01). Offal distribution was affected (p<0.05) by production system (3.261,4 vs. 3.015,0 g, to conventional and organic kids, respectively). We can conclude that the production system (conventional vs. organic) does not have an important effect in regional carcass composition in Blanca Andaluza kids. However, offal distribution showed higher scores in suckling Blanca Andaluza kids raised under conventional system compared with kids raised under the organic system