Meat quality and carcass characteristics of the vondo, Thryonomys swinderianus

Abstract

Animals, maintained from birth on a higher and lower fibre diet, were slaughtered when postnatal growth curves flattened off. Males tended to be larger than females. The meat of females tended to have higher lipid (9.2 g/100 g fresh mass) and energy (767 J/100 g fresh mass) contents than that of males. The cholesterol content of vondo meat was low (48.5-53.4 mg/100 g fresh mass) compared to values for beef and goat. The two diets did not affect carcass characteristics and meat quality significantly.