Characteristics Of Canary Hair Sheep (Pelibuey) Lamb'S Carcass Fed With Banana (Musa Acuminate) By-Products

The use of alternative feeds for animal nutrition has widely been recommended in the last years. Banana (Musa acuminate) is a predominant culture in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world with an estimated world production of 116 million tons. Banana by-products could be used as alternative feeds for ruminant nutrition. The present study assessed the effects of replacing ryegrass hay with banana byproducts on carcass characteristic and composition in Canary hair sheep lambs. The animals (N=22, weighted 14.8 +/- 0.5 kg body weight (BW)) were divided into 2 groups receiving a mixture of fresh banana by-products and commercial ryegrass hay, respectively. A commercial concentrate feed was also added to both groups. After a 58-day trial, 14 animals (n=14) were slaughter at weights of 25.0 +/- 0.6 kg BW. Carcass weight, dressing weight, composition and tissue weight were not significantly different for both groups, except for the weights of the empty digestive tracts (P=0.001) and livers (P=0.002). The results confirm that banana by-products could be used as alternative forage source for Canary hair sheep lambs raised in subtropical conditions.