Dietary energy levels for Santa Ines sheep:: Carcass characteristics and body constituents

Carcass characteristics, cut dressing and body constituents were determined according to the different dietary energy levels. Eighteen Santa Ines sheep (averaging live weight of 20 kg and six months old) were full fed diets with 2.43, 2.66 and 2.88 Mcal of metabolizable energy (ME)/kg of dry matter (DM). The animals were slaughtered when reached 33 kg live weight (LW). A randomized block design, with six replicates, was used. Linear decreasing effect was observed for loss in fast (LF) and linear increase for hot (HCW) and cold (CCW) carcass weight, hot (HCD) and cold (CCD) carcass dressing and empty body weight (EBW). However, the loss in cooling (LC) and true dressing (TD) were not affected by the dietary energy levels. For the cuts and its respective dressing in relation to the CCW, no effect was observed for the analyzed variables, except for shoulder weight and superior rib weight, that showed increasing linear effect, as the dietary energy levels increased. The compactness index of the carcass and leg showed no effect, as the dietary energy levels increased. Fat thichness and loin eye area showed no significant effects. No significant effect was observed for the noncarcass constituents, except for the internal fat (IF) and for the content of gastrointestinal tract-CGT and rumen/reticulum-R/R, that showed linear increasing effect and linear decreasing effect, respectively.