SYSTEMATIC CROSSBREEDING AND ITS IMPACT ON CARCASS PARAMETERS AND ASSOCIATED MEAT QUALITY PROPERTIES IN GOATS AND SHEEP

SYSTEMATIC CROSSBREEDING AND ITS IMPACT ON CARCASS PARAMETERS AND ASSOCIATED MEAT QUALITY PROPERTIES IN GOATS AND SHEEP

NEVER ASSAN

The major focus of any commercial goat and sheep enterprise is to
maximize on carcass and meat production and obviously realizing
substantial gain in profits. In modern goat and sheep meat production,
crossbreeding has become an admissible and accelerated strategy to
produce carcasses that ensure the point of departure for leaner meat, in
addition to consumer acceptable carcass properties. It has become a
norm that genetic manipulation for desired carcass and meat quality in
small ruminants can be achieved through crossbreeding. There is
considerable individual, maternal and paternal heteroses for carcass and
meat quality properties in goat/ sheep crosses. In this regard, crossing of
genetic distant goat/sheep breeds fortifies the degree of manifestation of
carcass and meat quality performance results. In practice noticeable
commercial gains have been achieved in improving carcass and meat
quality properties through crossing indigenous and exotic goats’/sheep
breeds, especially in low input production systems. It should be noted
that the inconsistency on end results on the impact of crossbreeding on
carcass and meat quality parameters is due to various non-genetic factors
that are experienced in different production systems. Carcass and meat
value is influenced by a significant number of different factors where the
uttermost importance are genotype, nutrition, sex, age and weight at
slaughter and management. In this case, comparability of results of
crossbreeding on carcass and meat quality performance in different
production systems have been debatable and complicated, due to the
fact that in certain cases crossbred animals are slaughtered at the same age and varied sex, and/or different age and same sex, possibly differing
in weight at slaughter. The differentiated nutritional management in
extensive versus intensive production systems is critical in determining
the quality carcass and/or meat in crossbred goat and sheep. Consumers
have been the major prescribers of the intended form of carcass and
meat quality proponents’ world over, especially in developed countries.
In this regard crossbreeding has been strategically used to customise
meat production to the needs of various production systems, in terms of
carcass and meat attributes seem acceptable by different host markets
and consumers’ expectations. However, it has been acknowledged that
not necessarily every crossing is adapted for breeding to guarantee
comparable desired carcass and meat quality parameters, hence different
combination of two-breed and to a lesser extent three-breed crossing of
selected populations of goats and sheep have been used to carter for the needs of different production systems and markets. Against this
background, the application of any systematic crossbreeding strategy should take into account the appropriate breed combination by selecting right population to fulfill efficient goat/sheep meat production. Crossbreeding capitalize on genetic distance through utilizing superior
specialized maternal and paternal breeds/lines for the purpose of
maximizing their superiority, diluting their flaws for improved
performance in carcass and meat quality parameters. Basically,
crossbreeding is not one size fits all, in conformity with expanded genetic diversity of goat and sheep breeds and differential production systems, no one combination of specific breeds will work for multiple production systems. The purpose of the present review is to give an insight on the impact of crossbreeding on carcass and meat quality parameters in goats and sheep

Scientific Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences (2020) 9(7) 945-955

2020