carcass morphology and meat quality from roosters slaughtered at eight months affected by genotype and finishing feeding

The aim of this study was to describe the carcass characteristics and the meat quality of the roosters from the autochthonous Mos breed slaughtered at 8 months. With comparative purpose roosters from hybrid line Sasso T44 were used in this study. Birds were reared on their typical production system (extensive indoor or barns and finishing diet whit corn). Both live and carcass weight were higher for commercial breed (p<0.001). Drumstick, thigh and wing percentages were greater in Mos breed than in Sasso T-44, while breast was similar for both genotypes. Only significant differences in cholesterol and alpha-tocopherol content between genotypes have been found, whereas finishing feeding treatment had effect on moisture, intramuscular fat content, cholesterol, tocopherol isomers and meat yellowness. Unsaturated fatty acids constituted the main contribution to total amount of fatty acid (FA), where monounsaturated oleic acid was the major compound, and found higher concentrations in commercial breed. Mos breed showed higher amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and lower amounts of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) than Sasso T-44. The relation PUFA/SFA was above 0.68 for Mos breed and was slightly lower for the other genotype. In conclusion, the carcass morphology and meat quality was influenced by breed and finishing feeding with corn.