The effects of coping style on some physiological and behavioral characteristics as well as fattening performance, carcass and meat quality in lambs weaned at different ages

The objective of this study was to determine relation of coping style (CS) with some physiological and behavioral characteristics of lambs weaned at different ages and its effect on fattening performance, carcass and meat quality. A total of 40 male lambs divided into two groups, as Proactive (Pro, n = 20) and Reactive (Rea, n = 20) in terms of CS, were used for this study. There was no significant effect of CS on blood parameters measured after weaning (P> 0.05). The effect of weaning age was significant only for CK, LDH and TP (P<0.0001). The effects of CS, weaning age and measurement time on live weight (LW) and daily weight gain (DWG) were significant (P <0.01). Slaughter weight and hot carcass weight were higher in Rea lambs than Pro lambs (P ≤0.05). Panelists (n=43) gave higher scores to Pro lamb meat in terms of flavor intensity and overall satisfaction (P ≤0.05). These results indicate that it is possible to identify distinct individual CS in terms of open field test behaviors in lambs. The results also show that, CS plays a significant role in fattening performance in lambs. Selection of lambs according to behavioral characteristics related to CS may be useful in improving LW and DWG without adversely affecting carcass and meat quality characteristics.