Relationship of fat-tail and body measurements with some economic important traits in fat-tail Makoei breed of Iranian sheep

This research seeks to predict in vivo  carcass composition of lambs. A total of 576 Makoei fat-tailed lambs were used. Lambs were 6-7 months fold and weighed about 15.1 - 41.4 kg. Measurements included body weight, upper, middle and lower tail-depth and width, upper, middle, lower tail and neck circumference, right, middle and left tail-length, body length, whither height, abdominal and heart girth. Having slaughtered each animal, omental, mesenteric and tail fat were separated and weighed. Weight of fat-tail and sum of omental and mesenteric contents varied from 50 - 2290 g and 8.1 - 536 g, respectively. These traits showed relatively high correlation with all fat-tail and body measurements. The highest correlations were observed between fat-tail weight and lower circumference and live body weight measures (68 and 67%, respectively). Keywords : Makoei breed, fat tailed sheep, carcass composition African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(36), pp. 5989-5992, 6 September, 2010