Carcass characteristics, meat quality, and fatty acid composition of wild-living mallards (Anas platyrhynchos L.)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the carcass characteristics, meat quality, and fatty acid composition of wild-living mallards. The experimental materials comprised 30 mallards (1:1 sex ratio) harvested during the hunting season in northeastern Poland. The carcasses were transported to the laboratory where they were weighed individually, plucked, dressed, and dissected. The proximate chemical composition and physicochemical properties of meat and the fatty acid profile of breast muscle lipids were determined, and a histological analysis was performed. Body weight (BW) and carcass weight were higher in males than in females (P ≤ 0.05), whereas the percentage share of carcass tissue components was similar in both sexes. Edible components accounted for approximately 60% (♂) to 60.7% (♀) of the total BW of mallards, including lean meat; 40.9% (♂) to 41.5% (♀), skin with subcutaneous fat; 10.7% (♂) to 10.8% (♀), and giblets; 8.3% (♂) to 8.4% (♀). Breast muscles had high protein content (23.51%♀ to 23.6% ♂) and low fat content (0.82% ♂ to 0.84% ♀). In the fatty acid profile of breast muscle lipids, saturated fatty acids (SFA) accounted for 39.1% (♂) to 39.04% (♀), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA)-for 17.31% (♂) to 17.33% (♀) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)-for 43.61% (♀) to 43.64% (♂). The diameters of type IIA and type IIB muscle fibers were lower in males than in females (P ≤ 0.05), whereas lipid storage sites in muscles were similar in both sexes. The values of cooking loss (CL), water-holding capacity (WHC), pH24, and color parameters of breast meat were comparable in males and females. The results of this study indicate that wild-living mallards, both males and females, are characterized by high meat quality, and that seasonal mallard harvests can provide meat with desirable eating attributes, attractive to consumers.

Dynamic accumulation of fatty acids in duck (Anas platyrhynchos) breast muscle and its correlations with gene expression

“…The deposition of fatty acids in meat was a complex and dynamic process, that could be affected by various factors such as age, sex, breed and rearing conditions of the animals. In the current study, we identified 20 fatty acids in duck breast muscle and found that the species and predominance order of indicated fatty acids were similar to previous reports [14,27,28]. We compared the composition of fatty acid between male and female ducks and found that it was really difficult to make a clear conclusion about the influence of duck sex on fatty acid composition of breast muscle.…”

“…It has been speculated in previous studies that the high levels of PUFAs (C20 and C22) in the meat of wild mallards mainly resulted from the birds' diet, as these fatty acids can be derived from exogenous sources [14,33]. In the present study, all the ducks were reared under the same conditions, suggesting that the different fatty acid profiles of the two breeds were mainly due to genetic variation between them.…”

“…In addition, fatty acid compositions are heritable traits, with heritability ranging between 0.2 and 0.6 in various populations of pigs [11,12]. Chickens and ducks of different breeds have been shown to vary in fatty acid composition, suggesting that genetic factors may influence fatty acid composition, and breeding poultry for favorable fatty acid composition is possible [13,14].…”

Comparison of some meat and liver quality traits in Muscovy and Pekin ducks

“…Damaziak et al (2014) noticed greater diameters of white and red fibres of the pectoralis major muscle in 10-wk-old female and 12-wk-old male Muscovy ducks compared to Pekin ducks aged 7 weeks, which is consistent with our findings. Witkiewicz et al (2004) found a significantly higher percentage of white fibres (αW) and diameters of red fibres (17.5 µm 2 ) and white fibres (33.1 µm 2 ) in the pectoralis major muscle of Pekin ducks from the A44 pedigree flock, which are improved for (Janiszewski et al 2018) with wild-living mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) showed significantly higher diameters of white fibres (36.15 µm 2 ) and red fibres (16.14 µm 2 ) in females than in males (33.91 and 15.35 µm 2 , respectively), but this was not confirmed by our findings. Our results may suggest the greatest effect of genotype on microstructural characteristics of pectoralis major muscle.…”

Effects of different breeds/strains on fatty acid composition and lipid metabolism-related genes expression in breast muscle of ducks

“…MBG and BH1 had a lower Ʃn−6/Ʃn−3 value but higher contents of PUFAs (n−3, n−6), which suggested that the breast muscle of MBG and BH1 might have better fatty acid composition. Other studies showed that the high content of MUFA could increase the palatability of meat, while SFA could increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases ( Janiszewski et al, 2018 ; Jiang et al, 2013 ; Temple, 2018 ). The C22:1(n−9) was one of the most abundant MUFA among 5 duck breeds/strains.…”