PSII-1 A comparison of fatty acid attributes and edible meat yield percentage in different species of deer meat.

• Published in: Journal of Animal Science
• Main Authors: Reed, D, Berg, E, Sun, X, Berg, P
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2018
• Subjects: Abstracts; Alces alces
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6285546/; https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/sky404.153

The objective of this study was to compare meat fatty acid attributes (stearic acid, oleic acid) and edible meat yield from three different species of cervids. Twenty-nine mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus; OH), 22 moose (Alces alces; AA), and 21 Elk (Cervus canadensis; CC) were harvested from North Dakota and processed in the meat lab at North Dakota State University. All of the data were subjected to an ANOVA. All of the outliers were identified and removed before final analysis. The least squared mean significant differences (LSMEAN) were calculated at a 5% significance level to compare the treatment means. SAS statistical software (V 9.4, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC) was used for the ANOVA. Fatty acid analysis methods for stearic and oleic acid for each species according to AOAC # 996.06. Yield data were also collected and compared across species to include shot loss and lean availability. OH and CC exhibited higher percentages of intramuscular oleic acid (OH, 24.1%; CC, 29.7%) than AA (14.5%, p<.01).Mule deer had the highest stearic acid content (24.7 %). For yield data, OH reached the highest lean availability (64.44%), followed by CC at 59.35%, with AA the lowest (56.05%). This research found that mule deer and elk have more desirable MUFA and SFA content than moose with the highest lean yield percentage of meat from mule deer.