Effects of Birth Weight on Animal Performance, Fattening Traits and Meat Quality of Lambs

Simple Summary It is accepted that a low body weight at birth (<4 kg) might impair postnatal muscle and increase adipose tissue development during the whole life of lambs. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of body weight at birth of lambs on the growth performance, ruminal parameters, digestibility, non-carcass components, carcass traits, physicochemical characteristics and fatty acid profile of meat when slaughtered at 27 kg. Compared to the lambs born with a high weight (>5.5 kg), the lambs born with a low body weight showed a worse animal performance during the fattening period, and increased fat depots with a higher content of saturated fatty acids and a reduced tenderness of meat. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a key developmental programming factor which might impair both the feed efficiency of lambs and meat quality, since it deeply impacts skeletal muscle and adipose tissue development. To determine the effect of birth weight on the growth performance, ruminal parameters, digestibility, non-carcass components, carcass traits, physicochemical characteristics and fatty acid profile of meat, two experimental groups (six animals in each group) of male Merino lambs with different body weights (BW) at birth (low BW (LW; 3.88 +/- 0.281 kg) and high BW (HW; 5.80 +/- 0.647 kg)) were used. The lambs were penned with their corresponding ewe during the natural suckling period, being weaned at 15 kg. Then, the lambs were penned individually and offered a complete pelleted diet during the fattening period. All the animals were slaughtered when they reached 27 kg of BW. After weaning, both daily dry matter intake (578 vs. 615 g/day; p = 0.021) and average daily gain (141 vs. 190 g/day; p = 0.004) were significantly lower in LW lambs, and a higher feed:gain ratio was recorded for this group (3.98 vs. 3.45; p = 0.008). Carcass traits did not show differences (p > 0.05) between both groups of lambs, except for higher chilling losses for the LW group (3.29 vs. 2.69%; p = 0.012). Additionally, higher amounts of kidney knob and channel fat were observed for LW lambs (85.4 vs. 152 g; p = 0.028). Apart from a higher hardness of meat in LW lambs (152 vs. 189 Newtons, p = 0.040), no other differences (p > 0.05) were observed in the physicochemical traits of this product; however, the meat of LW lambs tended (p = 0.057) to contain more total fatty acid content with a higher (p = 0.041) proportion of saturated fatty acids than the meat of HW lambs. In conclusion, under the conditions of the present study, a low body weight at birth increased the deposition of fat in carcass and non-carcass components during the fattening period of lambs, thus reducing animal performance and worsening the nutritional indexes of the meat. Accordingly, it seems reasonable to try to identify these animals during early life, to be sold as suckling lambs in the meat market instead of being fattened.