Effect of the breed and the maintenaning system on selected parameters of blood and meat in sheep

Abstract

Experiments were conducted on 360 lambs of three genotypes (Czarnogłówka, or Blackheaded Mutton Sheep; Polish Merino; and Wrzosówka, or Polish Heath), 120 for each genotype (ram lambs and ewe lambs). The aim of the experiments was to search for a connection between the parameters of meat quality traits in lambs reared in different housing and feeding systems on the one hand, and between the genetic and physiological blood parameters on the other. The study demonstrated the effect of feeding intensity on muscle and fat content. Feeding also significantly influenced the fat content in the longissimus dorsi muscle, and the saturated-tounsaturated fatty acid ratio, which is decisive of the tastiness of meat and its health-promoting values, as shown by other studies. The conducted studies also revealed wide variability of blood types and polymorphic variants of transferrin and hemoglobin in the tested groups of sheep breeds. However, due to the small numbers of animals used in the experiment, this variability does not justify an unequivocal conclusion about these relations that could enable a practical use of the chosen genetic and physiological parameters for breeding-selection work. These results should be considered as preliminary in the search for genetic traits of meatiness and the traits decisive of the tissue fat level (including the saturated-to-unsaturated fatty acid ratio) in lamb.