Determination of the Relationship Between Ultrasonic Measurements at Different Fattening Times and Carcass Properties

This study was conducted to estimate the relationships between the ultrasonic measurements and carcass characteristics of Akkaraman lambs at different intensive feeding periods with a multivariate correlation (canonical). For this purpose, 16 male Akkaraman lambs with an average of 20 kg live weight at the age of 2.5 months were fed and sent to slaughter after a 10-day training period and 70-day intensive feeding. The lambs were fed with 150 g of dry alfalfa and concentrated feed as ad-libitum during the fattening period. As the ultrasonic measurements were taken at the beginning, middle, and the end of the fattening, eye muscle depth, eye muscle fat thickness, and skin thickness were taken as independent variable data set, while carcass characteristics were taken as dependent variable data set. As a result, the canonical correlation coefficients of Akkaraman lambs were 0.999, 0.977, and 0.549 at the beginning of fattening; 0.980, 0.931, and 0.770 in the middle of the fattening and 0.999, 0.996 and 0.814 at the end of the fattening, respectively. While the first coefficient of canonical correlation at the beginning of the fattening and the first and second coefficient of canonical correlation at the end of the fattening was statistically significant (P<0.05), it was found that the coefficients of canonical correlation in the middle of the fattening were not statistically significant. As a result, it has been determined that the ultrasonic measurements taken during the fattening of Akkaraman lambs can be used to estimate the carcass characteristics.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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