Study On Muscle Histological And Physicochemical Characteristics From Small Fat-Tail Sheep

Small fat-tail sheep is one of the most famous meat breeds in our country. It was introduced to improve our breeds in 1994 in Hebei province. In this experiment, some histological, physicochemical characteristics of meat from Small fat-tail sheep were studied in order to systematically study its meat quality. These characteristics includes muscle fiber diameter, cross section area,density, pH₁ value, pH₂₄ value, meat colour score, marbling score, lost water per, holded water per, cooking per, steam boiling loss, water, dry matter, crude fat. The correlation between histological characteristics and physicochemical ones was analyzed. The difference in such characteristic as before between different breeds, ages ( 3 months, 8 months,and 12 months ) and body parts(musculus triceps brachii,musculus longissimus dorsi,and musculus biceps femoris) was tested and so the regulation of change in meat quality was disclosed. Boer goat as a comparison. The results showed that muscle fiber diameter of Small fat-tail sheep was 28.25μm,muscle fiber cross-sectional area was 684.93μm², muscle fibers density was 1126.79N/mm², pH₁ value was 6.53, pH₂₄ value was 5.94,meat color was 3.35,Marbling was 2.12,lost water per was 6.22%, holded water per was 93.78%, cooking per was 64.62%, steam boiling loss was 26.93%, water content was 79.48%, dry matter was 20.52% and crude fat was 1.53%.Results also showed that there were no significant different on pH value, water loss per (WL), and cooked meat per among different age and part. The factor of age had a very significant effect(P<0.01) on meat color, marbling score, muscle fiber diameter, muscle fiber cross-sectional area and muscle fiber density. The factor of breed(Small fat-tail sheep and Boer goat)had significant ( P< 0.05) or very significant(P< 0.01) effect on muscle fiber diameter, cross section area,density, pH₁ value,pH₂₄ value, meat colour, marbling, lost water per, holded water per, water, dry matter and crude fat. Meat quality of Small fat-tail sheep was more tenderness than Boer goat in gender. Meat quality of 3 months old was most tenderness in different ages of Small fat-tail sheep. Meat quality of longissimus dorsi was most tenderness in different anatomical location of Small fat-tail sheep. Compared with Boer goat, meat quality of Small fat-tail sheep was full of tenderness. Correlation analysis showed that muscle fiber diameter was highly significantly (P<0.01) related with muscle fiber cross-sectional area, muscle fiber density, meat color , marbling, water content and dry matter. Highly significantly (P<0.05)with cooking per and steam boiling loss. No significantly (P> 0.05)with others.Cross-sectional area was highly significantly (P<0.01) related with muscle fiber density,color, marbling and wanter content. Highly significantly (P<0.05)with cooking per, No significantly (P> 0.05)with others. Muscle fiber density was highly significantly (P<0.01) related with color, marbling, steam boiling loss and water content. Highly significantly (P<0.05)with cooking per, No significantly (P> 0.05)with others. PH₁ value was highly significantly (P<0.01) related with pH₂₄ value. Holded water per was highly significantly (P<0.01) related with lost water per.Other characteristics existed in varying degrees of correlation. It had differences in the correlationship among different anatomical location of Small fat-tail sheep.