RESUMO
The effect of the fattening diet, slaughter weight and sex on meat quality was studied in a total of 156 hybrid rabbits. After weaning, rabbits were divided into three groups of 52 animals each (50% male and 50% female), that were allocated for three weeks to one of three commercial diets containing low (14.28%, A), medium (18.04%, B) and high (20.48%, C) fibre content with decreasing energy levels. Animals were slaughtered at 2.0 and 2.3kg after the consumption of a common pre-slaughter non-medicated concentrate and pH, colour, water-holding capacity (WHC), Warner-Bratzler shear test and sensory analysis were all measured. Meat from animals fed with low fibre and high energy was the least luminous. Rabbits slaughtered at 2.0kg showed more yellowness than at 2.3kg at 0min. In both traits, these differences did not prevail after 15min of blooming. Globally, meat from males was more coloured than that of the females, both at 0 and 15min of blooming. No significant differences were found for pH, WHC or shear test for the individual effects. In the sensory analysis, rabbit and grass odours were more intense at 2.0kg than at 2.3kg of slaughter weight.
RESUMO
The effect of the fattening diet on the intramuscular fatty acid composition was studied on a total of 96 hybrid rabbits. Animals were slaughtered at weaning, at 1.6kg after the consumption for three weeks of various diets containing low (14.28%), medium (18.04%) and high (20.48%) fibre content, and at 2 and 2.30kg after the consumption of a common non-medicated concentrate, as occurs commercially. Weight had an effect on the percentage of intramuscular fat that decreased as weight increased, as well as on the percentage of most fatty acids except for saturated fatty acids. The percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids increased from weaning whereas polyunsaturated fatty acids subsequently decreased due to a reduction of n-6 fatty acids. In general, diet affected the fatty acid profile in rabbits slaughtered at 1.6kg, which the rabbits were having exclusively one of the three fattening diets. The finishing common diet seems to reduce most differences due to the growing diet which, if rich in fibre, would produce a more favourable final n-6/n-3 ratio.
