Effects of gender and slaughter age on meat quality of Anatolian water buffaloes.

The study aimed to investigate the effects of slaughter age and gender on specific carcass and technological meat quality characteristics in Anatolian water buffaloes. The study was conducted on 55 water buffaloes using a 2 × 2 factorial design with two independent variables at two levels. Gender subgroups of male (n = 29) and female (n = 26) and slaughter age subgroups of younger than 2 years of age (n = 29) and older than 2 years of age (n = 26) were evaluated. Hot carcass and cold carcass weights were higher in old water buffaloes than young ones (P < 0.001). The skin weight of old buffaloes was also higher than young buffaloes (P < 0.01). Drip loss, expressed juice, and Warner Bratzler (WB) shear force values of longissimus dorsi (LD) muscles were not influenced by age group and gender of buffaloes. The lightness (L*) and hue (H*) values were higher in young buffaloes than old animals (P < 0.001). The meat of male buffaloes had lower redness (a*) and chroma (C*) values than that of female buffaloes. The current results indicated that female water buffalo could also be used for meat production away from negative impressions on the meat quality of female water buffalo.