Assessment of the effect of pre-slaughter fasting period of young bulls on the qualitative characteristics of meat

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of the technological operation “pre-slaughter fasting period” on the qualitative characteristics of the meat of young bulls. The studies were carried out in two groups of Ayrshire bulls of 18 months of age, with a live weight of 435 ± 3.25 kg: I (n = 10) – slaughter without fasting period at the slaughter station, II (n = 10) – slaughter with 24-hour fasting period at the slaughter station. The total distance from the farm to the animal weighing and slaughter station was 97 km, and the travel time was 1 hour 43 minutes. The ambient temperature at the time of transportation was minus 13-15 °C, air humidity was 79 %, wind speed was 6 m/s. It has been established that the technological operation in the form of fasting period during 24 hours after transportation affected the qualitative indicators of the longissimus dorsi muscle, namely, there increased: the dry matter content by 2.45 %, protein – by 2.64 %, glycogen concentration – by 38.9 %, moisture capacity – by 11.01 %, oleic fatty acid – by 2.65 % with a decrease in moisture content – by 2.48 %, pH – by 3.5 %, myristic fatty acid by 0.95 %, palmitoleic acid – by 0.42 %, stearic acid – by 1.35 % compared to the group of bulls without fasting period. Thus, pre-slaughter 24-hour fasting period of young bulls improves the qualitative characteristics of meat compared to animals slaughtered without it.