Determination of quality and chemical composition of fattened camel meat in Dromedarius and cross breed (Dromedarius and Bactrianus)

Providing of people protein needs by domestic sources is the most important purpose for agricultural sector. In recent years, due to low annual rain, wide spread desert regions, has been paid to breeding camel as a source of meat producing animal in Iran. Along with development and increasing the efficiency, it is necessary to pay attention to the quality of camel meat. In this study twenty-four male and female one-humped and crossbred camel meats were fattened during six and nine months by completely randomized design. Camels were slaughtered and percentages of meat, total fat and bone of different part of carcasses (leg, shoulders, breast, loin, flank and neck) were determined. Chemical composition and quality of meat characteristics as dry matter, crude protein, NPN, crude fat, , ash, mineral matter (Ca, K, Mg, P, Na, Zn ,Fe), gross energy, pH, cooking loss, texture, WBC and color (OD) of six parts of body were measured. Results indicated that meat percentage of crossbred was higher than one-humped and this difference was significant (P≤0.05) in shoulder and neck parts. The ratio of M/B in leg part of crossbred and one-humped camel meats was 3.15 and 3.02 respectively. Totally fat and trimming percentage of crossbred carcasses was lower than one-humped samples, the difference of trimming was significant in shoulder parts (P0.05). The meat analysis of different parts of carcasses showed that the percentage of moisture of one-humped was lower than crossbred camel meat. The percentage of protein in six parts of crossbred carcass was higher than one humped and was significantly (P≤0.05). The highest and the lowest mean of protein were determined in crossbred leg and native loin parts (77.08 and 47.07 percentages of dry matter respectively). The NPN percentage of female camel meat was higher than male camel samples and was significantly different (P≤0.05) in leg and neck parts. There was no difference between groups in energy content, but fattening time was affected significantly(P≤0.01). The result indicated that the pH level of crossed camel meat was lower than one-humped sample and this difference was showed along fattening periods (P0.001). Mineral matters of meat were affected by fattening, so K, Zn and Fe contents were increased from six to nine months of fattening (P≤0.05). Totally there was no difference between genetic and sex groups on quality traits of meat, just some meat characteristics were difference (texture and OD) in loin and neck parts. The loin texture of one-humped camel meat was softer and juicier in compare with crossed one. Color of the crossed neck meat was more reddish than native groups (P0.05). The result indicated that the percentage of cooking loss was increased with fattening period in six parts of body (P≤0.01).