Effect of replacing different levels of full fat soybean with soybean meal on carcass characteristics, lipid oxidation and meat quality of Zel fattening lambs

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different levels of replacement of full fat soybean meal with soybean meal. In this study, the average daily growth rate, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, relative weight rate, specific growth rate, carcass characteristics, meat quality, and fat oxidation rate of roast muscle were measured in Zel fattening lambs. The lambs had a mean age of three months at the initiation of fattening and a weight of 19.44±0.1 kg. At 14 weeks of experiment (two weeks of habituation and 12 weeks of fattening), the lambs were divided into four treatments (0, 33, 66 and 100% high fat soybean meal replacement, respectively) and each treatment with five replicates. The results showed that the average daily growth rate, relative weight percentage and specific growth rate increased with increasing soybean percentage. At the end of the experiment, 12 lambs (three lambs from each group) were slaughtered and in carcass dissection, weight, carcass, heart, liver, four parts stomach, the hands, thighs and the shoulder and hip carcass showed significant increase by increasing the amount of soybeans diet. Taste quality, overall acceptability and meat texture were also improved (P<0.05). By increasing the shelf life of the shelf muscle (one and two months), the oxidation rate of meat fat was significantly reduced (P<0.05). The results of this study showed that the use of high-fat soybean increased the growth performance indices in lambs and also reduced the oxidation rate and improved the meat quality indices during cold storage.