Meat characteristics of Garole x Sandyno crossbreed sheep in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu

Introduction

Garole is a highly prolific micro-sheep breed of the coastal saline zone of Sundarbans in West Bengal, India. Garole is the original source of the Booroola FecB gene (Asaduzzaman et al., 2021; Patil et al., 2016; Roy et al., 2023; Sahana et al., 2011) [1,10,12,13] with incidence of twinning is 66% (Roy et al., 2023) [12] . This unique fecundity profile distinguishes Garole from Sandyno sheep, which are reared primarily for mutton, not for prolific traits (Kumar et al., 2002; Roy et al., 2023) [6,12] . Under improved nutrition at ICAR-Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar, Garole performance improves substantially overall leastsquares means for BWT, 3WT, 6WT, 9WT and 12WT were 1.18 ± 0.02 kg, 6.42 ± 0.12 kg, 9.87 ± 0.18 kg, 11.77 ± 0.25 kg and13.74 ± 0.32 kg respectively (Prakash et al., 2017) [11] . Sandyno is reared for mutton and fine wool production; however, the demand for wool in the state has declined such that selling price often does not cover the cost of shearing, and the focus has shifted entirely to mutton production (Chaudhari et al., 2024) [3] . Highest ADG observed in Sandyno elite ewe lambs during 6-9 months is 62.98 ± 2.80 g/day (Kumar et al., 2021) [6] . These data confirm Sandyno as a medium-to-large framed, fast-growing mutton genotype, an ideal maternal or sire-line contributor for crossbreeding programmes that aim to lift pre-slaughter weights of smaller-stature native breeds. This establishes Sandyno as a strong-growth, hill-adapted mutton breed that combines well with the prolific but small-stature Garole. Despite being sourced from a contrasting agro-climatic zone (hot, humid, saline), Garole genetics have been used successfully in several Indian crossbreeding programmes, and a Garole × Sandyno cross in Tamil Nadu offers a scientifically rational basis for combining the prolificacy and disease-resistance advantages of Garole with the superior growth and frame size of Sandyno. Also, a cross between them is of considerable interest to smallholder mutton production in both coastal/saline and dry-land farming systems (Kumar et [6,12,13,16] . A collaborative study was undertaken by the Sheep Breeding Research Station, Sandynallah, Ooty and the Department of Meat Science and Technology, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal to investigate the meat production performance and physicochemical quality characteristics of meat obtained from Garole x Sandyno crossbred (F2 Generation) sheep.

Materials and Methods

Experimental Site

The experiment was conducted in two phases. The carcass evaluation was carried out at the Sheep Breeding Research Station, Sandynallah, Ooty, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, while the proximate analysis of meat samples was performed at the Department of Meat Science and Technology, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu.

Experimental Animals

Six healthy male Garole × Sandyno cross-bred sheep were selected at twelve months of age for carcass yield and mutton quality evaluation. The animals were maintained under a semi intensive system with uniform feeding and management regime throughout the experimental period, following standard practices at the Sheep Breeding Research Station, Sandynallah, Ooty.

Pre-slaughter and Slaughter Procedure

The animals were subjected to an overnight fast (approximately 12 hours) prior to slaughter, with free access to clean drinking water, in order to empty the gut and minimise contamination of the carcass during dressing. Preslaughter live weight of each animal was recorded immediately before slaughter using an electronic weighing balance. The animals were slaughtered by the humane method, i.e., by performing electrical stunning prior to bleeding (exsanguination), following the standard protocols prescribed for animal welfare in slaughterhouses. After electrical stunning and bleeding, the carcasses were dressed using routine procedures of skinning, evisceration, and washing.

Carcass Measurements

The carcass traits were recorded for each animal and all cut weights are expressed on the basis of the hot carcass.

Meat Sample Collection and Proximate Analysis

Representative meat samples from all six animals were collected, packed under refrigerated conditions, and transported to the Department of Meat Science and Technology, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal, for further analysis. The proximate composition of the meat was determined using standard AOAC methods.

Statistical Analysis

The data obtained on carcass traits and proximate composition were tabulated and computed using standard formulae, and the results were expressed as means with appropriate measures of variability.

Results

Carcass Parameters

The important carcass parameters were recorded in the present study to analyse the meat-producing ability of the Garole × Sandyno cross-bred (F2) sheep slaughtered at twelve months of age. The mean values are presented in Table 1. The mean live weight of the experimental animals was 20.15 ± 0.22 kg (mean ± SEM) with a narrow range of 19.50-20.90 kg, indicating a highly uniform group were selected. Mean dressing percentage was 40.10 ± 0.30%, ranging from 39.00 to 41.00%. Among the non-carcass components, skin (10.92%) and head (8.18%) contributed the largest proportions of live weight, followed by intestines (7.10%), blood (4.20%) and the stomach compartments (4.08%); spleen (0.26%) and kidney (0.50%) were the smallest.

Wholesale Cut Weights

The mean weights of the principal wholesale cuts are presented in Table 2. The carcass is divided into a fore quarter of 53.35 ± 0.19% and a hind quarter of 46.45 ± 0.19%. Among the primal cuts the leg with hind shank was the largest at 28.10 ± 0.11% (2.27 kg), followed by the shoulder with fore shank at 25.52 ± 0.12% (2.06 kg) and the rib at 20.98 ± 0.13% (1.70 kg); together these three accounted for 74.60% of the carcass. The rump (10.63%), loin (7.72%) and neck (6.85%) made up the balance.

Physicochemical properties of Meat

The mean values of pH, Water Holding Capacity (WHC) are 5.99 ±0.01 and 30.12 ± 0.14 respectively.

Proximate Composition of Meat

The proximate composition and gross energy of twelvemonth-old Garole × Sandyno cross-bred sheep are presented in Table 3.

[4,7,15] . The dressing percentage of 40.10 ± 0.30% was comparatively lower than the values reported for Bandur, Hassan and Kenguri sheep (Dodamani et al., 2025; Muthukumar et al., 2021) [4,9] . This relatively lower dressing percentage may be associated with the compact and smaller body conformation inherited from the Garole parent. 2021) [5,6] . The ultimate pH of the Garole × Sandyno crossbred meat was 5.99 ± 0.01, which was comparable to the value reported for the Garole parent (5.91) (Mondal et al., 2023) [8] . The waterholding capacity (WHC) recorded in the present study was 78.88 ± 0.14%, which was substantially higher than the value reported for Garole sheep (31.26 ± 0.25%) (Mondal et al., 2023) [8] . This marked difference indicates that the crossbred meat exhibited considerably greater moisture-retention capacity than the Garole parent. Therefore, while the ultimate pH was comparable between the crossbred and Garole sheep, the WHC showed a distinct improvement in the Garole × Sandyno crossbred meat. The high WHC observed in the present study may be associated with favourable muscle characteristics and could contribute to reduced moisture loss during storage and cooking. Moisture constituted the major component of the meat, followed by protein, ether extractable fat, total ash and gross energy. The overall proximate composition was broadly comparable to that reported for the Garole parent. The crude fat content of 2.78% was relatively low compared with higher-finishing Indian sheep breeds such as Bandur (7.23%) and adult Malpura (5.16%) (Bhatt et al., 2020) [2] , indicating that the Garole × Sandyno crossbred produced comparatively lean meat. This lower fat deposition may be attributed to the relatively limited finishing and concentrate supplementation commonly associated with tropical small-ruminant production systems (Mondal et al., 2023) [8] . The favourable WHC observed in the present study is also consistent with the desirable meat-quality characteristics reported for Garole sheep, including lower cooking loss, good water-holding capacity and acceptable tenderness (Sen and Karim, 2010) [14] . When compared with the Malpura benchmarks obtained using standardized AOAC proximateanalysis procedures, the meat from Garole × Sandyno crossbred sheep in the present study exhibited a leaner composition with relatively higher moisture content (Bhatt et al., 2020) [2] . Overall, the findings indicate that Garole × Sandyno crossbred meat possesses favourable physicochemical characteristics, particularly its high WHC, together with a relatively low-fat content, suggesting its potential to produce lean and consumer-acceptable mutton.

Conclusion

The investigation was designed to generate standardised carcass and meat-quality data on this crossbreed at a slaughter age appropriate to small hill holder sheep-production systems in Tamil Nadu. With this inference, the Garole × Sandyno cross-bred sheep at twelve months of age yielded a carcass weight exceeded the actual Garole breed along with its twinning characters. Also, further studies involving both male and female Garole × Sandyno crossbred sheep are required to comprehensively evaluate their meat characteristics and establish the breed's meat production potential alongside its prolific twinning ability.

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