THE QUALITY OF SHEEP MEAT OF DIFFERENT GENOTYPES ON HISTOLOGICAL LEVEL

Abstract

In Russia, there has been an increased interest concerning the formation of high meat
productivity of sheep and, especially, in its quality characteristics.
However, the amount of researches on the muscle tissue quality at the microstructural
level is extremely insufficient, both depending on the technology of fattening and the condition
of flesh, and in the breed aspect.
At the same time, histological analysis allows us to obtain specific characteristics of raw
meat at the level of muscle fibres, in particular, the degree of their development in various
muscles, the number and diameter per unit area, quantitative and qualitative parameters and
architectonics of intermuscular fat inclusions that determine the so-called "marbling" and
juiciness of meat to a certain degree.
Taking this into account, microstructural quality evaluation of the sheep meat of
different genotypes and directions in productivity at the present stage is significant. In this
respect, an experiment on microstructural study of the longest back muscle of 9-month-old
young ewes was conducted in the Republic of Kalmykia. There were different variants of
crossing: AMMxGT; ½( AMMxGT)xGT; ½(AMMxST)xGT; STxGT; GTxGT. The results of
the research showed that sheep meat obtained from australized animals was characterized by a
large number of muscle fibers per unit area by an average of 17.1%, smaller diameter by an
average of 11.2 %. It was also pointed out that there was a higher number of fat interfiber and
interfascicular inclusions, which was due to a higher rating of "marbling" on average by 5.04
points. In addition, mutton, obtained from australized animals, contained less connective tissue
by 1.3 abs.%. All this indicates that meat obtained from australized animals, is more tender,
juicy and has in total higher quality and consumer properties.