Carcass characteristics and meat quality of adult Sahelian does fed a basal diet of Brachiaria decumbens grass supplemented with probiotics and concentrates

A 14-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplementing probiotics and concentrates on carcass characteristics and meat quality of Sahelian does fed a basal diet of Brachiaria decumbens grass. Twenty-four does weighing averagely 13.3 +/- 1.16 kg and aged averagely 12 months were randomly allocated to four treatments of six does each in a Completely Randomised Design with 2 x 2 factorial arrangement. The factors were levels of probiotics (0 and 100 g per 100 kg of concentrate) and concentrate (500 g and 1000 g per day). On the last day of the feeding trial, three goats per treatment were slaughtered by severing the jugular veins of the throat and trachea without stunning. Carcass characteristics were determined, and meat samples from longissimus lumborum were taken for analysis of the proximate composition and evaluation of fatty acid profile. The results showed that supplementing higher levels of concentrate and probiotics led to improved dressing percentage without any deleterious effect on the weights of internal organs, increased crude protein content and reduced crude fat content of the meat. The results further showed reductions in saturated fatty acid concentrations and increases in unsaturated fatty acid concentrations. It was concluded that the probiotics could be incorporated at 100 g per 100 kg of the concentrate and fed at 1000 g/d for improved carcass quality.