Comparación de machos enteros búfalos de agua (Bubalus bubalis) vs vacunos acebuados en características al sacrificio, de la canal, rendimiento carnicero y palatabilidad del longissimus.

Twenty-seven intact male water buffaloes of Murrah breeding (BUFFALOES) and 18 Zebu type bulls (CATTLE) were savannah-fed on the same ranch and slaughtered when they reached a desirable conformation to be compared in slaughter characteristics, carcass traits, cutability and meat palatability. Slaughter weight ranged 435 to 512kg for BUFFALOES and 375 to 494kg for CATTLE. Least square mean differences between species in percent head, cooler shrink, feet, blood and genitals were not significant (P>.05). BUFFALOES had significantly heavier hides, larger gastrointestinal tract and higher (P>.05) percentages of liveweight removed as organ fat. These body components are partly responsible for the significantly lower dressing percentages (- 6.5 %) of BUFFALOES vs CATTLE. Non-significant differences were found between species for total percentages of trimmed fat and bone, and percent yield (P>.05) of the most expensive (high valued, boneless) cuts. CATTLE yielded higher percentages (P .05) overall tenderness ratings (4..3 vs 4.8). It was concluded that commercial disadvantages of BUFFALOES in dressing percent and cutability detected herein, could be overcome by designing marketing strategies promoting the buffalo meat as a high-quality product.