Características de carcaça e qualidade da carne de ovinos confinados alimentados com dietas à base de silagem de BRS capiaçu aditivada com farelo de milho

Abstract

Twenth one intact feedlot lambs (aged approximately 90 days, average live weight of 26.0kg), were used to evaluate the effects of diets based on BRS Capiaçu elephant grass silage on the hot and cold weight, yield and pH of carcasses, and color, ribe eye area, cooking losses, shear force and proximate composition of Longissimus muscle. The animals were distributed in a randomized block experimental design (initial PV) with 3 treatments and seven replications, totalizing 21 plots. The experiment was conducted on a private property located in the municipality of São José dos Cordeiros – PB and lasted 58 days (14 days of adaptation to the diets and 44 days of experimentation). Isoproteic diets using silage as roughage and soybean meal, ground corn grain and urea as concentrate, were formulated for a gain of 200g of BW/day with ad libitum water consumption by the animals. Two silages based on BRS Capiaçu elephant grass were tested, without and with addition of FM (10% FM based on DM) with corn silage as a control. For the variables initial weight (PI, P=0.8851), slaughter weight (PA, P=0.4261), hot carcass weight (PCQ, P=0.3456), hot carcass yield (RCQ, P=0.4202), cold carcass weight (PCF, P=0.2923), cold carcass yield (RCF, P=0.2820), true yield (RV, P=0, 7802), pH measured immediately after slaughter (pH0, P=0.0669), pH measured 24 hours after slaughter (pH24, P=0.1376), finishing (AC, P=0.9573), renal-pelvic fat assessment (AGPR, P=0.0791) and body condition score (BCS, P=0.4585), no differences were observed between treatments. The animals that consumed corn silage had greater total weight gain (TWG, P=0.0018) and average daily gain (ADG, P=0.0018) than the animals that consumed Capiaçu grass silage. There were no significant differences in the variables of fat thickness (EG, P=0.9134), loin eye area (AOL, P=0.0814) and carcass compactness index (ICC, P=0.2034) of the animals fed the different diets. For the color parameters of the Longissimus lumborum muscle, there was a difference in the a* coordinate (red intensity, P=0.0364) between the animals fed corn silage and Capiaçu silage with 10% FM, with average values of 15.39 and 13.69 for SM and SC+10%FM, respectively. Although some significant differences were observed, there were no losses in carcass and meat quality between the silages studied, so it can be concluded that silage from the BRS Capiaçu cultivar can be used to feed small ruminants as a substitute for corn silage.