Meat quality, proximate composition and muscle fatty acid profile of young llamas (Lama glama) supplemented with hay or concentrate during the dry season.

Thirty llamas were used to study the effect of a 90 day feed supplementation on meat quality, chemical composition and muscle fatty acid profile. Treatments were: GR=llama on native pasture until slaughter; GR+SH=like GR, but with overnight free access to barley/alfalfa hay; and GR+SC=like GR, but with overnight free access to a wheat bran/sorghum grain concentrate. The supplementation had no effect on postmortem pH and temperature decline in the Longissimus lumborum muscle (LLM), cooking losses nor Warner-Bratzler shear force values (P>0.

Meat quality attributes of the Longissimus lumborum muscle of the Kh'ara genotype of llama (Lama glama) reared extensively in northern Chile.

Twenty male llama of the Kh'ara genotype, reared extensively in the north of Chile, were slaughtered at ages between 2 and 4 permanent teeth (2 to 3.5years) and analyses were carried out on the Longissimus lumborum muscle, including composition (moisture, fat, protein, ash, cholesterol, amino acids, fatty acid profile and collagen content) and meat quality parameters (pH, color, water holding capacity and Warner-Bratzler shear-force). Llama meat was characterized by a low cholesterol (39.

Identification of cattle, llama and horse meat by near infrared reflectance or transflectance spectroscopy.

Visible and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (VIS-NIRS) was used to discriminate meat and meat juices from three livestock species. In a first trial, samples of Longissimus lumborum muscle, corresponding to beef (31) llamas (21) and horses (27), were homogenised and their spectra collected in reflectance (NIRSystems 6500 scanning monochromator, in the range of 400-2500 nm). In the second trial, samples of meat juice (same muscle) from the same species (20 beef, 19 llama and 19 horse) were scanned in folded transmission (transflectance).