Meat quality and morphology to meet the patency of Menz sheep (Ovis aries) in North Shewa Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted to characterize meat quality and morphology of sheep in North Shewa Zone, and to generate baseline information on the patency of Menz sheep. A total of 720 sheep were purposely selected for morphological study. The result showed that age at first kidding, age at sexual maturity, weight, height, length, hair length, tail length and age at disposal were with a mean of 5.58 months, 4.55 months, 36.62 kg, 60.44, 82.49 and 4.42 cm and above 1 year, respectively. The result revealed that all sheep in the study areas were local pure breed, most of them were hornless with smooth hair and white coat color traits. The analytical result ranges from 5.68 to 6.25 (pH), 64.06 to 74.18 (moisture), 18.26 to 25.12 (protein), 3.80 to 13.71 (fat) and 1.02 to 1.46 (ash) contents of meat. Menz district sheep showed significant change in the parameters aforementioned. Menz sheep were the best in all traits/parameters, and a need of patent right to improve Menz sheep appropriately is our recommendation.   Key words: Meat quality, Menz sheep, morphology.