Performance and meat quality of lambs fed detoxified castor meal

Objective The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the performance and meat quality of lambs fed diets containing four levels of substitution (0, 33, 67, and 100 %) of soybean meal for detoxified castor meal (CM). Methods Twenty-four sheep (18.5 ± 2.71 kg initial body weight) were distributed in a completely randomized design with four treatments and six replicates. Results The intakes of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and metabolizable energy were not affected (p > 0.05) by the CM levels. The neutral detergent fiber (NDF) intake increased linearly (p 0.05) on the percentage of total lipids of the lamb meat, but the inclusion of CM in the concentrate had a positive quadratic (p < 0.05) the oleic acid (C18:01n9) in lipids of the lamb meat. Conclusions Inclusion of detoxified castor meal in the concentrate impairs the productive performance, however it contributed to increase monounsaturated fatty acids content in the meat of lambs. Replacing up to 33% soybean meal with detoxified castor meal is recommended.