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. 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). Kids goat had a significantly (p<0.01) higher content of each of C18, C14, C11, C18:2 and C18:3 than Meriz kids, whereas Meriz kids surpass significantly Black goat in C16, and the difference between the two-breed lacked significance in C18:1.Also, it was shown that castrated kids had significantly (p<0.01) higher proportion of all studied fatty acids as compared to intact kids, and all profiles of saturated fatty acids were significantly lower in kids slaughtered at 15kg live body weight compared to kids slaughtered at 20 and 25kg.
