CARCASS PRODUCTION AND MEAT QUALITY OF SHEEP FED HIGH LEVEL OF RUMEN BYPASS FAT DIETS

Abstract

Fat content of ruminant diets has naturally restricted due to the nrmen ecosystem, in which fibrous materials digested by rumen microbes. The presence of high amount of fat (>4%) in the diet has been reported to be detrimental to most rumen microbes and will reduce their cellulolytic activity. To correct such negative eflect, fats/oils should be prepared in such a form to make them able to pass tluoughout the rumen safely and will be available to the animal in the small intestine. An experiment using 20 growing male Garut sheep was conducted to test the effect of 4 types of concentrate diets on carcass production and meat quality based on a randomized block design. The diets were made iso-nitrogen and iso-calory, basically composed of wheat pollard and soybean meal. Concentrate (C)-A was formulated without fat addition, C-B contained 10% free fatty acids, C-C and C-D contained 10% and 15% rumen bypass fat (in form of Ca-fatty acids), respectively. Fresh chopped King grass had been fed to each sheep 4 kg/day, while drinking water available every time. Results of the experiment showed no significant difference in total dry matter intake among treatments (varied from 847.42 to 875.90 g/d). Carcass productiort however, was significantly higher (P<.05) on sheep fed rumen bypass fat (16.34 kg for diet C-C and 15.72 kg for
diet C-D) as compared to the other diets (14.84 kg for diet C-A and 14.68 kg for diet C-B). There was no significant difference among dietary treatments on most quality parameters observed. Fat content of the mutton was 2.42% for sheep fed diet C-D, and it was significantly higher (P<.05) than that of sheep fed diet C-C (1.71%), which was not differ significantly compared to the sheep fed control diet (C-A). Feeding high level of rumen bypass fat to the sheep increased the proportion
of total unsaturated fatty acids content of the meat fat, while total saturated fatty acids was significantly lower (P<.05). The whole data comparison shows that the concentrate diet containing 10% rumen bypass fat gave the best result on carcass production and meat quality.