Impact of Draught Power Utilization on the Nutritional and Sensory Quality of Borgou Cattle Meat in Benin

Draught power can influence cattle meat quality. The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of draught power on nutritional and sensorial qualities of Borgou cattle used for agricultural works in Northern Benin. For this purpose, 21 clinically healthy Borgou oxen, of 5 years old, grazing under the same agroecological conditions were used, including 10 animals employed in draft work for two years and 11 animals not subjected to draft work. Nutritional parameters and sensorial attributes of the Longissimus thoracis muscle were measured. Student’s t-test was used to compare means. The results on the proximate composition of Borgou cattle meat shows that draft work had no statistically significant effect (p>0.05) on dry matter, ash, fat, or crude protein contents. Dry matter content was almost similar between draft animals (22.85 g/100 g) and the control group (22.77 g/100 g). Similarly, ash content remained comparable and varied between 0.89 g/100 g and 0.91 g/100g in both groups. Although non-significant, a slight tendency was observed for higher crude protein levels in meat from draft animals (20.32 g/100 g) compared to controls (20.09 g/100 g), whereas fat content appeared higher in control animals (1.79 g/100 g) than in draft animals (1.56 g/100 g). The sensory evaluation indicates that meat from draught animals had recorded the higher scores for flavor (4.59 ± 0.03 vs. 4.15 ± 0.07; p < 0.001), texture (4.71 ± 0.02 vs. 4.20 ± 0.07; p < 0.001), juiciness (4.59 ± 0.03 vs. 3.95 ± 0.09; p < 0.001), and taste (4.71 ± 0.02 vs. 4.30 ± 0.06; p < 0.001). Similarly, the overall acceptability was significantly higher in meat from draught animals (4.69 ± 0.02) compared to the control group (4.17 ± 0.03; p < 0.001). In contrast, no significant difference was observed for color (4.57 ± 0.03 vs. 4.43 ± 0.06; NS. Overall, these results suggest that exposure to draft work did not markedly alter the proximate composition of Borgou beef but improve its sensory attributes.