A study on the indentification of meat animal spicies according to carcass make up hair morphology and fatty acid composition

ABSTRACTMSc THESISA STUDY ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF MEAT ANIMAL SPECIESACCORDING TO CARCASS MAKE UP HAIR MORPHOLOGY ANDFATTY ACID COMPOSITIONSSavaş Fuat TURANDEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL.SCIENCEINSTITUTE OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCESUNIVERSITY OF ÇUKUROVASupervisor : Prof. Dr. Oktay GÜRSOYYear : 2006, Pages: 175Jury : Prof. Dr. Oktay GÜRSOYProf. Dr. Okan GÜNEYAssoc. Prof. Dr. Zerrin ERGİNKAYAThis study was conducted with the objectives of differentiating and identifying sheep, goatand cattle meats from swine, horse and donkey meats which are prohibited for consumptionaccording to Food Codex in Turkey by comparing carcass make-up, hair morphology and fatty acidcompositions of respective species. Three animals from each specie made up the material of thisstudy. Samples of 100 g subcuteanus fat were taken from each animal. Fatty acids were stabilized byforming methyl esters and gass choromatography was used to determine the amounts of 35 saturatedand unsaturated fatty acids. Plamitic and stearic acids were seen to be the most abundantly foundsaturated fatty acid in all the species. Similarly oleic, linoleic and palmitoleic acids were the highestunsaturated fatty acids in all the species. The morhological analyses under the microscope, fiberdiameter and fiber length were used for compare the hairs of the respective species. The lowest fiberdiameter was seen to be in sheep as comparing to the highest diameter found in swine.The carcasses of the species were compared according to weight (size), external appearance,fat cover, meat color and bone anatomy. Sheep and goat carcasses were found to be the smallest insize and very different from the swine, horse and donkey carcasses but highly similar to each other.Cattle carcasses and primal cuts were found to be similar to horse, donkey and even swine and easilybe substituted for each other.Fatty acid compositions may be a fairly good and dependable method toidentify meats of animal species.Key Words: : Carcass identification, hair morphology, fatty acid composition, carcass make-up.II