Growth , carcass composition and nutrient content of meat of different local geese in Isparta region of Turkey ( short communication ) Summary The local goose breeds

The local goose breeds Kara, Beyaz, Şam, Ala and Tülü of the Isparta province in Turkey are relatively small with body weight at the age of 12 weeks for males-females of 2864.1-2593.1, 2588.5-2296.8, 3004.3-2504.3, 2601.9-2264.0 and 2754.7-2352.0 g. The average percentages of slaughter yield of Kara, Beyaz and Şam geese at the age of 104 weeks for malesfemales were 71.4-69.8, 71.6-69.9 and 71.0-69.3%. The percentages of breast and leg to the carcass were 46.648.4, 48.7-50.2 and 47.1-48.3%, respectively. Average percentages of crude protein content for breast and leg muscle were 19.7-20.1, 22.0-20.3, 18.2-18.0% and 15.8-18.0, 21.7-16.2, 17.7-19.8%, respectively. The content of crude fat for breast and leg muscle were 0.230.49, 0.39-0.40, 0.44-0.40% and 0.92-1.41, 0.39-1.31, 0.46-0.33%, respectively. Because of the lower fat percentage, the local goose breeds could be important for a commercial crossbred program.


Introduction
Turkey is surrounded by Sea, and has natural sources of fresh water on which different local goose genotypes have been extensively produced in primitive conditions.The goose production is generally intensified around Kars, Erzurum and Ağrı provinces of East Anatolian region, but, has not been widely spread to Turkey due to damaging of vegetable gardens and agricultural areas (SELÇUK and AKYURT, 1986).The goose breeding has been practised in small farms with white, black and white, grey and black goose varieties (SELÇUK et al., 1983) at extensive conditions.There are no statistical data on goose production potential and no informations on characteristics and performances of local goose breeds (TESTIK, 1995).
In Isparta province the goose breeding have been widespreaded around Şarkikaraağaç, Senirkent, Eğirdir villages and in Konya province around Beyşehir Lake (İŞGÜZAR and TESTIK, 1999).Some breeds have already been lost and the others were found to be moving rapidly to the brink of extinction.For this reason conservation actions have been started.FAO recognised the urgency of characterising and conserving indigenous breeds in developing countries as soon as possible (HODGES, 1992).There are also increasing demands in many countries for products which are produced by sustainable technics (VARADI, 1995).The first objective in making goose meat more acceptable by the consumers is to increase the proportion of muscle, especially breast and leg muscles.Therefore, we need information on different traits of the native geese in Turkey.The purpose of this research was to investigate growth, carcass traits and the nutrient content of meat of different local goose breeds, to find out differences among genotypes.

Material and method
The experiment was conducted with day old goslings of five local goose genotypes (Kara, Beyaz, Şam, Ala, Tülü) in April at natural conditions.Each of the genotype group was consisted of 30-80 goslings, and all groups were identified with wing number without sexing and were weighted by electronic weight tool (± 2g) at the age of 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12 weeks.The birds were fed commercial starter ration (22% protein and 3060 kcal/kgME) only for the first two weeks.The birds hadn't have ad libitum.Thereafter they were kept under extensive natural conditions together with the adult geese.At sun rising the geese went out from the home yard to the pastures near lakes and roads, to the harvested fields and to ponds.When they came back home in the evening, wheat, barley, maize or corn mix and remains of melon, water melon and other foods were given in the home yard.From June until November geese have been fed by the remainings of corn mix after harvest.All goose genotypes were determined by physcial appearances and sexes at the age of 12 weeks.Kara, Beyaz and Şam goose genotypes of the local five genotypes were kept in the hen house under intensive conditions for two laying periods.Because they were the most widespreaded genotypes in the region.After the genotypes finished the 2 nd laying period, the geese were slaughtered at 104 weeks of age (4 weeks after finishing the 2 nd laying period) and were cut to determine the part of the carcasses.The carcasses and their parts were weighted without edible organs and with skin.Three birds of each sex and each group were taken to analyse the chemical meat composition.The results of body composition and protein , fat analyses are shown for the races Kara, Beyaz and Şam.Crude protein and fat analyses of muscular meat were made by Kjeldahl and Soxhlet tool, respectively (JAMES, 1995;Anon., 1993).Biostatistical analyses were done with MINITAB for WINDOWS (version 10.5).Mstatc was used for the test of significance.

Results and discussion
Growth Table 1 shows the means of the body weights up to the age of twelve weeks.There are significant differences among genotypes and sexes.The average body weights of both sexes at the age of 9 weeks were 1984.2 and 2572.0 g and at the age of 12 weeks 2264.0 and 3004.3 g.In this way, these values are lower to Rhenish and Italian White goslings (GROM et al., 1980) with 3531 to 3473 g and to 4 lines of Iva geese (KOCI,1983) with 3.6 to 4.0 kg at 8 weeks and to Italian White and Landes (SALEEV et al., 1982) with 3790 to 4210 g at 9 weeks and 4453 to 5038 g at 13 weeks and to Italian White, Bilgoraj and Lubno goslings (FARUGA and WOLOS, 1983) with 2106, 2046 and 1953 g at 4 weeks and 4108, 4116 and 3740 g at 8 weeks and to Italian White goslings (BIELINSKI et al., 1983) with 4.88 kg at 10 weeks and to Czech.White and Italian White (HROUZ, 1980) with 4070 and 4410 g at 8 weeks.goslings (LAZAR et al., 1980) with 4976 to 5667 g and to White Italian goslings (BIELINSKI et al.,1983) with 5.47 to 5.94 kg and to Xupu geese (MAO et al., 1984) with 5.5 to 6.5 kg.

Carcass traits
At the age of 104 weeks the geese have been slaughtered and cut.The means of the carcass characteristics are shown in Table 2.In this study, the average body weights of Kara, Beyaz and Şam geese for malesfemales were 3300.7-3193.0, 3572.3-3125.0, 3857.3-3042.0g and the average carcass weights were 2358.3-2227.7, 2556.0-2178.7, 2736.3-2111.3g.Generally, the data of carcass percentage were 69.3 to 71.6 % and similar to GALLO et al. (1983) and HROUZ (1982).Females of Kara and Beyaz geese had the significant highest breast and leg percentages.Generally, the breast meat percentage was high in all genotypes.
The reason is the relatively high age of 104 weeks.Differences of percentages for carcass, back, heart and liver were not significant between genotypes, but there was a big difference for leg percentage between female Kara and Beyaz geese and for neck between male Beyaz and female Kara geese.The comparison of our data with literatüre is not possible, because it is not mentioned if the carcass includes the edible organs or not.The same is for the neck.Furthermore, the data of literature are from young geese.
Nutrient content of meat Means of protein and fat content of breast and leg meat are shown in Table 3.The percentage of protein in meat of geese is 18 to 22%.The highest percentage of crude protein was observed in breast and leg meat of males of Beyaz goose.The values were similar to (HROUZ, 1977) with 21.3 to 21.4 % andto (BİELİNSKİ et al.,1983) with 20.8, 22, 22.7 and20.9%.The percentage of fat in legs were higher than in breast.The females of Kara goose had the highest fat content with 1.4 % among genotypes.These values were lower than (HROUZ, 1977) with 2.6 to 3.0 % and (KOCIOVA et al., 1980) with 3.7 to 4.8 % in the breast muscle and 4.0 to 11.1 % in leg muscles, respectively.The local goose genotypes are suitable for meat production with lower fat content.They are more advantageous with their less fattened meat and should be used within commercial crossbred programs.
(İLASLAN and AŞKIN, 1976).At the age of 12 weeks geese have reached almost 80 % of the adult weight.In our research, the adult weights of local geese were 3042.0 to 3857.3 g.The values are lower to Turkish breeder geese(SELÇUK et al., 1983)with 4.0 to 6.0 kg and to Kars region's geese(İLASLAN and AŞKIN, 1976)with 4.6 to 5.1 kg and to Rhenish Fig.: Growth curves of local geese as males and females (Wachstumskurven der Gänserassen getrennt nach Geschlechtern) The growth curves of males and females in the Figure demonstrate the characteristic growth rate for common geese.In the first week of life geese have low but thereafter a very intensive growth

Table 2
Composition of the body of local goose genotypes at the age of 104 weeks (%) (Schlachtkörperzusammensetzung der unterschiedlichen Gänserassen im Alter von 104 Wochen)

Table 3
Protein and fat content of breast and leg muscle of different goose genotypes (%) (Eiweiß-und Fettgehalt von Brust-und Beinmuskelfleisch unterschiedlicher Gänserassen im Alter von 104 Wochen) a,b=Different letters in the same row show significant difference (P<0.05).M=male, F=female