Table 3.

Meat quality parameters and chemical composition of the semitendinosus muscle from male lambs born to Turkish indigenous sheep breeds.

Traits	A	M	KR	KV	IW	MAM
pH	5.60 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{d}}$	5.73 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	5.68 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	5.61 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{cd}}$	5.66 $\pm$ 0.02${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	5.65 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{bcd}}$
Water-holding capacity	33.49 $\pm$ 0.63${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	35.42 $\pm$ 0.66${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	34.04 $\pm$ 0.58${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	33.11 $\pm$ 0.58${}^{\mathrm{b}}$	32.59 $\pm$ 0.63${}^{\mathrm{b}}$	33.01 $\pm$ 0.82${}^{\mathrm{b}}$
Drip loss (%)
Three days	8.57 $\pm$ 0.66${}^{\mathrm{b}}$	9.27 $\pm$ 0.70${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	10.52 $\pm$ 0.73${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	8.52 $\pm$ 0.64${}^{\mathrm{b}}$	9.25 $\pm$ 0.70${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	8.05 $\pm$ 0.64${}^{\mathrm{b}}$
Seven days	10.26 $\pm$ 0.84${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	13.31 $\pm$ 1.00${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	13.35 $\pm$ 0.89${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	9.36 $\pm$ 0.82${}^{\mathrm{c}}$	12.56 $\pm$ 0.89${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	10.84 $\pm$ 0.82${}^{\mathrm{abc}}$
Frozen–thawing loss (%)	11.26 $\pm$ 0.89	10.98 $\pm$ 1.00	10.89 $\pm$ 0.89	12.81 $\pm$ 0.85	13.22 $\pm$ 0.89	9.46 $\pm$ 0.89
Cooking loss (%)	31.32 $\pm$ 0.59	31.84 $\pm$ 0.69	30.89 $\pm$ 0.65	29.56 $\pm$ 0.59	30.67 $\pm$ 0.69	30.23 $\pm$ 0.62
Color
$L^{\ast }$	47.08 $\pm$ 0.69${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	42.69 $\pm$ 0.57${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	41.28 $\pm$ 0.50${}^{\mathrm{c}}$	42.01 $\pm$ 0.56${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	42.16 $\pm$ 0.58${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	43.52 $\pm$ 0.66${}^{\mathrm{b}}$
$a^{\ast }$	17.95 $\pm$ 0.41${}^{\mathrm{c}}$	19.93 $\pm$ 0.34${}^{\mathrm{b}}$	21.10 $\pm$ 0.30${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	20.77 $\pm$ 0.34${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	20.87 $\pm$ 0.35${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	20.13 $\pm$ 0.40${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$
$b^{\ast }$	5.80 $\pm$ 0.31${}^{\mathrm{c}}$	6.53 $\pm$ 0.25${}^{\mathrm{b}}$	7.51 $\pm$ 0.22${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	7.37 $\pm$ 0.25${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	7.29 $\pm$ 0.26${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	6.93 $\pm$ 0.29${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$
Dry matter (%)	22.92 $\pm$ 0.31${}^{\mathrm{c}}$	23.06 $\pm$ 0.31${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	24.00 $\pm$ 0.31${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$	24.72 $\pm$ 0.33${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	23.44 $\pm$ 0.30${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	24.55 $\pm$ 0.33${}^{\mathrm{a}}$
Ash	1.13 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	1.07 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{c}}$	1.09 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	1.10 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{abc}}$	1.07 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{bc}}$	1.11 $\pm$ 0.01${}^{\mathrm{ab}}$
Protein	19.98 $\pm$ 0.39	19.31 $\pm$ 0.39	19.66 $\pm$ 0.44	20.37 $\pm$ 0.41	20.80 $\pm$ 0.47	20.92 $\pm$ 0.44
Intramuscular fat	1.15 $\pm$ 0.15${}^{\mathrm{c}}$	2.01 $\pm$ 0.15${}^{\mathrm{b}}$	2.70 $\pm$ 0.17${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	2.52 $\pm$ 0.16${}^{\mathrm{a}}$	1.37 $\pm$ 0.18${}^{\mathrm{c}}$	1.85 $\pm$ 0.17${}^{\mathrm{b}}$

${}^{\mathrm{a},\mathrm{b},\mathrm{c}}$: the differences indicated by different letters on the same line are significant. $L^{\ast }$: lightness; $a^{\ast }$: redness; $b^{\ast }$: yellowness. A: Akkaraman; M: Morkaraman; IW: Awassi; KR: Karayaka; KV: Kıvırcık; MAM: Middle Anatolian Merino.