Small Ruminant Research 114 (2013) 51–55 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Small Ruminant Research jou r n al homep age : w w w . elsevier.com/locate/smallrumres Short communication Growth performance, feed efficiency and carcass characteristics of lambs produced from Dorper sheep crossed with Santa Inês or Brazilian Somali sheep D.A. Souza a,∗ , A.B. Selaive-Villarroel a,d , E.S. Pereira a,d , J.C.S. Osório b,d , A. Teixeira c a Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Zootecnia, Avenida Mister Hull s/n, Caixa Postal 12168, Campus do Pici – Bloco 810, Fortaleza, CE CEP 60455-900, Brazil b Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados, Rua João Rosa, No. 1761, Vila Progresso, Caixa Postal 322, Dourados, MS CEP 79825-070, Brazil c School of Agriculture of Polytechnique Institute of Braganc ¸ a (ESA-IPB), Veterinary and Animal Research Centre (CECAV), Apartado 172, Braganc ¸ a, Portugal d CNPq’s Productivity Researcher, Brazil a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 20 September 2012 Received in revised form 11 June 2013 Accepted 12 June 2013 Available online 8 July 2013 Keywords: Crossbred lambs Growth performance Carcass characteristics a b s t r a c t The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth performance and carcass character- istics of crossbred lambs of Dorper sheep crossed with Santa Inês or Brazilian Somali sheep and raised under an intensive production system in the northeastern region of Brazil. A total of ten non-castrated male lambs of each genetic group were used in this trial under a fully randomized design. The lambs were housed and creep fed until weaning at 60 days of age. After weaning, they were sent to a feedlot for finishing with a high energetic diet until slaughter, which occurred when they reached 3 mm of subcutaneous fat thickness. The crossbred Santa Inês lambs exhibited a higher daily gain (0.3 kg/day) than the Brazilian Somali crossbred lambs, which were more precocious in reaching the slaughter fat thick- ness (118 days). Significant differences were observed between the genetic groups for the hot carcass weight, carcass shrink, and measurements of the rib eye area, the carcass and leg compactness indexes and the weight of the carcass joints. However, no significant dif- ferences were found for the amount of lean meat per cold carcass weight unity and the yield of retail cuts. The crossbred Brazilian Somali lambs presented a higher amount of fat per cold carcass weight unity (26 mm/100 kg) than the Santa Inês lambs. According to the results obtained and under the described experimental conditions, it may be concluded that at the same maturity level, the growth performance, the age at slaughter and the main carcass characteristics vary with the genetic group, making possible the use of local sheep breeds to meet efficiently the needs of different markets. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 8533669701; fax: +55 8533669701. E-mail addresses: dansouza.07@hotmail.com (D.A. Souza), selaive@ufc.br (A.B. Selaive-Villarroel), elzania@hotmail.com (E.S. Pereira), jcosorio@pq.cnpq.br (J.C.S. Osório), teixeira@ipb.pt (A. Teixeira). 1. Introduction The sheep industry in northeastern Brazil is charac- terized by a low technology level, production systems with animal performance indices below the biologi- cal potential and underutilization of the environmental resources available, resulting in a poor quality final product. 0921-4488/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.smallrumres.2013.06.006