Indian Journal of Small Ruminants (The)

Sixteen Malpura lambs were equally divided into four groups and supplemented with different doses of Saccharomyces cerevisae culture (3.6x10⁹ cells/ml) as 0 (control), 0.5 (T,), 1.0 (T₂) and 1.5 ml/kg body wt (T₃) at 13–14 days of age. Lambs were slaughtered at the age of 180 days to assess carcass attributes and meatquality. Average pre-slaughterweights for control, T, T₂and T₃ were 21.90±2.53, 19.65±1.04, 25.20±1.46 and 24.20±3.54kg, respectively. Dressing yield on empty live weight (ELW) ranged from 54 to 57%. Loin eye area was comparable (9.29–11.65 cm²). Average lean, fat and dissected bone contents, in carcass were 56–58, 12–16 and 25–28%, respectively. Meat: bone ratio was comparable (2.01–2.29). Lean: fat ratio ranged from 3.70–5.15. The cooking losses and water holding capacity were 30–40 and 85–88%, respectively. The study suggested that supplementation of S. cerevisae culture to growing Malpura lambs did not have any effect on growth, carcass traits and meat quality.