Mesopotamia Journal of Agriculture

Abstract

To investigate the effect of castration and live body weight at slaughter on fatty acid composition, a total of 48 entire male kids (24 Meriz and 24 Black goat) were selected at weaning (90-120 days of age) and weighing 10.99 and 11.21kg, respectively from commercial goat farm were used. After an adaptation period for a week, the kids of both breeds were randomly divided in to two groups, the first was castrated, whereas the second groups were left intact, and then were allocated to be slaughtered at 15,20 and 25kg live body weight. All kids were placed in individual pens and fed concentrate diet and weighed at weekly interval kids. After slaughtering and chilling the carcass for 24h fed. The L. dorsi muscle was removed from each carcass and utilized for fatty acid composition.
Results obtained revealed that saturated fatty acids (SFAs)have the highest contribution, followed by poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and mono -unsaturated fatty acid (MUSFs). Kidsk goat had a significantly (p