The objective was to assess the effect of breed, sex, post-weaning nutrition and weight at slaughter on the fatty acids FA composition in carcass fat of lambs of indigenous Greek dairy breeds of sheep, the Boutsko B , Serres S and Karagouniko K breed. The lambs weaned at approximately 42 days had been reared under different conditions of housing and feeding in three consecutive experiments Experiment.
Thereafter they were finished on irrigated, sown pasture. Lambs were slaughtered at one of 5 standard proportions of mature weight PMW for each breed in Experiment 1 i.
The right hand side of their carcasses was minced and a random sample, around g, was taken. It was freeze-dried and then grounded to obtain a quantity of 2g for lipid extraction and preparation of fatty acid methyl esters, which were assayed by gas-liquid chromatography to identify. Results were analysed separately for each experiment by analysis of variance. The major finding in Experiment 3 was the trend for saturated fatty acids to be lower; possibly due to the fact that lambs finished at pasture.
It is concluded that there are possibilities of modifying FA composition in carcass fat of lambs by manipulation of post-weaning nutrition and slaughtering them at a wide range of live weights. Abstract The objective was to assess the effect of breed, sex, post-weaning nutrition and weight at slaughter on the fatty acids FA composition in carcass fat of lambs of indigenous Greek dairy breeds of sheep, the Boutsko B , Serres S and Karagouniko K breed.
