Evaluation of the meat traits of lambs of Polish native breeds

The research was performed on 136 male lambs, at an average slaughter weight of 32 to 42 kg, of the following Polish native breeds: Uhruska (UHR), Pomeranian (Pomorska, POM), Blackheaded (Czarnogłówka, CZGŁ), Podhale Zackel (Cakiel Podhalański, CKP), Wrzosówka (WRZOS), Świniarka (SWIN), Wielkopolska (WLP) and Polish Merino old type (MST). The longissimus lumborum muscle was tested to establish its basic chemical composition, physical and chemical traits as well as sensory traits. The meat quality of tested breeds was high, especially in terms of sensory traits. However, high variability of studied traits was observed depending on the breed, e.g. the average pH₂₄ ranged between 5.58 (WLP) and 5.77 (WRZOS), intramuscular fat content ranged between 1.98% (CZGŁ) and 4.12% (WLP), meat tenderness varied from 4.2 points (POM) to 4.64 points (UHR). Somewhat dark meat colour was observed in all breeds which is worth noticing (L* from 34.86 to 38.50). According to the general estimation of tested quality traits the following breeds were on the top of the ranking: SWIN, UHR, WLP and WRZOS. Further down in the ranking the following breeds were placed: POM, MST and CKP.