Effect of gender on quality and nutritive value of dromedary camel ( Camelus dromedarius ) longissimus lumborum muscle

This study aimed to determine the effect of gender on nutritive value of dromedary camel longissimus lumborum (collagen content, amino acids and fatty acids). Fourteen longissimus lumborum (LL) muscles (from 7 males and 7 females) were collected from 2 to 3year old camels. Animals were fattened by herders and slaughtered following commercial slaughterhouse procedures in Sudan. Samples were collected between the 1st and 5th lumbar vertebrae of the right carcass side. There was no effect of gender on intramuscular fat content, insoluble OH proline and total OH proline (μg/DM). Additionally no significant differences were found in amino acid composition between genders. However, muscles from female camels had significantly (P<0.05) higher arginine content (1460mg/100g) than males (1460mg/100g). The results showed no significant differences between genders for total saturated fatty acid (SFA), mono-unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) proportions in camel meat. In contrast significant differences were revealed for some specific MUFA and PUFA (18:1 delta 10–11 trans, × 1.51, (P=0.05), CLA (trans 11, cis 9 18:2, × 1.33% (P=0.11) and trans 10, cis 12 18:2, × 5.7, (P=0.03) in female muscles). PUFA/SFA ratio was found closer to the recommended value for human nutrition (0.45). Also the n-6/n-3 ratio was lower than the recommended values for healthy human diets (4.0). Altogether, these results indicated high nutritive value of dromedary camel meat compared to meat from other farm animals.