Eight Podocnemis expansa commercial flocks, all of them located at the county of Diorama State of Goiás, were monitored with the purpose of evaluating, the carcass yield parameters and chemical composition. The experiment was conducted upon animals with ages ranging from 23 to 29 months, whose performances were evaluated by taking their biometrical measures - the carapace rectilinear length in millimeters and the gain of weight in grams. It was also evaluated the carcass output and chemical composition. The comparison analysis were made using the Duncan's range test in addition to the analysis of the correlation between body weight and carcass output. The results have pointed out that the animals of 166.45 mm of mean rectilinear carapace length and 621.3 g of mean body weight obtained the following output mean values: carcass without viscera, 29.87%; carcass plus viscera, 46.71%; carcass plus carapace, 49.58%; fat, 5.00%; viscera, 16.76% and, liver, 2.90%. The meat mean protein corresponded to 17.38% in matter, and showed a low value for the ether extract (1.09%). A strong correlation between the body weight and the carcass output was observed (r = 0.97).
Podocnemis expansa; carcass output; management in captivity
