Effect of slaughter season on postmortem metabolic characteristics of muscle in the dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of slaughter season on the postmortem metabolic characteristics of dromedary camel longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle. A total number of thirty male camels (5-7 years old) were included in this work. Ten camels were slaughtered according to season of the year (winter, spring and summer). The samples were analyzed for muscle pH, muscle temperature, electrical conductivity, drip loss (DL), cooking loss(CL) and thawing loss (TL). No significant (p> 0.05) effect of slaughter season on muscle pH and cooking loss was observed. However, slaughter season significantly (p< 0.05) influenced the electrical conductivity, muscle temperature, drip loss and thawing loss. All of these parameters were higher (p< 0.05) during summer as compared to winter and / or spring seasons. Moreover, several correlations between different studied parameters were reported. In conclusion, these findings indicated that slaughter season had a significant (p< 0.05) effect on several postmortem metabolic parameters of camels. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the electrical conductivity late postmortem measurement can be used as a suitable method for the evaluation of camel's meat quality.