Carcass characteristics and meat of Aberdeen Angus steers submitted to surgical or immunological castration

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the carcass and meat characteristics of Aberdeen Angus steers surgically castrated at two ages or immunocastrated with two protocols. Forty-eight calves we used, monitored from birth and weaned, with age and initial mean weight of six months and 160±16.54kg, respectively. The animals were randomly assigned to the following treatments: surgical castration at birth; surgical castration at weaning; immunocastration with three doses of the Bopriva ® vaccine and immunocastration with four doses of the Bopriva ® vaccine. The experimental design was completely randomized. Immunocastrated steers with three doses had a greater cooling break and lower fat thickness adjusted for 100kg of cold carcass than surgically castrated at birth (P< 0.05). Immunocastration with three doses provided an increase in muscle participation in relation to surgical castration but reduced fat in relation to surgical castration at birth (P< 0.05). The muscle:bone ratio was higher in the immunocastrated with three doses compared to surgically castrated at weaning (P< 0.05). Despite variations in tissue involvement in the carcass, the immunological castration proved to be viable to replace surgical castration, not changing the quality of the meat standards.