Reality in Live Animal and Carcass Characteristics of Indigenous Cattle Slaughtered in Six Abattoirs in Tanzania

摘要

The objective of this study was to look on some slaughter and carcass characteristics of cattle slaughtered directly from extensive system in six abattoirs in regions where there is large number of livestock population. The data belong to 1,244 cattle slaughtered in the slaughter houses for a period of 21 consecutive days of January 2014. The information herein explore and validate the data given in different statistical sources. Since the beef industry is currently constrained by low genetic potential of existing stock, inadequate infrastructure, inadequate marketing system, prevalence of animal diseases, inadequate feed resources, weak livestock farmer's organizations and inadequate technical support services, this information will be used by policy makers and scientists to improve the beef cattle productivity and beef products from the existing stock. The survey results of the 1,244 sampled animals showed that most of the animals were slaughtered when aged between four to six years and differed (P<0.05) in slaughter live weight, castrates being the heaviest (256.2±6.69 kg), followed by entire as intermediate (244.4 ±6.41 kg) and lastly females (238.0±6.69 kg). The highest (P<0.05) live weight at slaughter was seen in Ankole sub-breed (273.5±4.92 kg) while the lowest slaughter weight in Gogo sub-breed (226.8±5.77 kg). It was noted that, all the sub-breeds had similar dressing percentages ranging from 47.3 - 52.3%, but when graded, Tanzania Special had 51.8% while Tanzania three had the lowest dressing weights of only 49%. It is concluded that, the indigenous animals are sold when they are more than four years old and they have potential in producing both carcass and non-carcass components and portray possibility of higher carcass values than the current documented data.