Comparative Evaluation of Proximate Chemical Composition and Eating Quality of Meat from Three Selected Ethiopian Sheep Breeds in Different Levels of Concentrate Supplement

An experiment was conducted to assess the influence of sheep breed and concentrate supplement level on proximate chemical composition and eating quality of mutton. At the end of 90 days fattening, all sheep were slaughtered and 6 to 13 rib position of longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle was sampled for meat quality assessments. Higher a* (15.5±0.12), b* (12.9±0.15), and ultimate pH (5.8±0.03) values were recorded in LL muscle of Washera breed than Blackhead Ogaden (BHO) and Horro breeds. However, Washera sheep had lower L* (34.7±0.29) (P
East African Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Vol. 2 No. 2 (2018): East African Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences