Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani-431 402 (Maharashtra), India.
Online published on 21 January, 2012.
An experiment was conducted to study the carcass characteristics, body composition and nutrient deposition in Osmanabadi bucks kept on various planes of nutrition. The study revealed that the fasted body weight, shrinkage percentage and hot carcass weight were not influenced by the various planes of nutrition. However, empty body wiegh-(20.11 to 21.98 kg) and dressing percentage on empty body weight (54.32 to 61.83%) increased (P<0.05) due to combination of dietary protein and energy levels. The dressing percentage on fasted body weight increased (P< 0.01) with normal level of dietary protein and high level of dietary energy whereas the dressing percentage on empty body weight increased (P<0.01) with normal level of dietary protein. The normal level of dietary protein and high level of dietary energy and their combination reduced (P<0.01) the time to attain the slaughter weight of 25 kg. The carcasses of bucks slaughtered at 25 kg body weight under various dietary protein and energy combinations contained moisture, 61.11 to 67.13%; protein, 18.68 to 19.86%; fat, 7.58 to 12.39%; ash, 2.46 to 5.05% and GE, 4.682 to 5.936 Meal per kg. The high level of dietary energy increased (P< 0.05) the fat and GE but decreased the moisture content of the carcass. Total protein deposition increased (P< 0.01) due to combination of dietary protein and energy levels and also increased (P<0.05) with normal level of dietary protein. Daily protein gain increased (P<0.05) with normal level of dietary protein and high level of dietary energy. The total energy deposition and its daily gain also increased (P< 0.05) with normal level of dietary protein and high level of dietary energy and with their combination. The high plane of nutrition resulted in high quality carcass with greater protein and energy deposition.
