engleski

Economic losses caused by disposal of skin and edible internal organs of the red deer - preliminary results

The red deer is one of the most valued game species. Red deer meat or venison is very similar to bovine meat, while the meat of the hind is more similar to roe deer meat. The fatty acid composition of deer meat has higher proportion of highly unsaturated fatty acids, making it more suitable for human consumption. During evisceration, a large amount of potentially edible parts are disposed. Beside them, deer skin, once a highly appreciated product, nowadays represents a side product that is sent to the pound as waste. The aim of this paper was to analyze potential economic losses in the hunting ground caused by such practice. The survey was performed in the state open hunting ground no. VII/15 ''Zapadna Garjevica'' (Bjelovar-Bilogora County). A total of 43 red deer carcasses were collected and equally distributed according to sex and age categories. From game meat, only the meat with bones is exploited economically, so there is no available data on the prices of other potentially usable parts. Therefore, we used the prices of the equal parts of cattle carcasses. The field dressing percentage was 75.7%. Of edible internal organs, the average weight of the red deer heart was 1.18 kg, the kidney 0.39 kg and the liver 2.27 kg, while the average skin mass was 9.82 kg. Without using these organs, the economic loss amounts to an average of HRK 83.95 per animal. According to age categories, the loss per body weight is as follows: HRK 0.75 per kg (1 year old), HRK 0.69 per kg (2), HRK 0.67 per kg (3-5) and HRK 0.65 per kg (>5). With an annual hunting quota of approximately 270 animals, the total loss amounts to HRK 22.666, 50. The financial balance of a hunting ground is usually very fragile. A reduction in any economic losses should be one of the main efforts of each of the hunting ground owners. If we compare the observed loss and the average price of venison for a deer weighing 106 kg on average (a conditional individual - CI), we can notice that with the price of HRK 23 per kg of venison, the total loss is 15 CI (5.6% of the hunting quota).

red deer, internal organs, skin, economic losses

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