The aim of this study was to assess the effect of two slaughter methods (SM) and the gender on the quality of capybara meat. The slaughter methods assessed were the humanitarian (HM) and by head-shot (HS). Two lots of 10 animals were used, one of them containing 5 males and 5 females and the other containing 8 males and 2 females. Values of pH of the longissimus dorsi muscle (between the vertebras 10th and 12th) after 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 24h post mortem (p. m.), color (L, a e b), weight losses by cooking (WLC) and shear force (SF) were assessed on samples obtained at these points. The results indicated that pH means were not influenced by both SM and sex. The medium values were: 6.24; 6.05; 6.01; 6.01; 6.03; 6.04 and 5.96 at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 24 hours respectively. That demonstrated that in those encourage the installation of the rigor mortis superficial with reduced extension glicolitic. Regarding the color, HS presented higher L* (32.40) values (P<0,05) than HM (29.59), and the effect of gender on this parameter was not observed. On the other color parameters and on WLC no differences among the lots were observed. SF was influenced by SM, with higher values found (P<0,05) for the HS than for the HM, 5.04 and 3.97kgf, respectively.
slaughter method; sex; meat; quality; pH; capybara
