Effect of Caponization on Meat Quality of Greenleg Partridge Cockerels

Abstract

the objective of the study was to determine the effect of caponizing Greenleg partridge cockerels on slaughter parameters and meat quality. in total 80 Greenleg partridge cockerels were assigned to two groups with 40 birds per group. Group i (control) consisted of uncastrated cockerels and group ii contained birds that were castrated at 8 weeks of age. Birds were kept until 24 weeks of age and fed the same diet ad libitum. Body weight was recorded at 1, 8, 16 and 24 weeks of age. dressing percentage, proportion of breast and leg muscles, giblets and abdominal fat, and microstructure of the pectoralis superficialis muscle were determined postmortem. physicochemical characteristics of meat (pH, ciE l*a*b* colour, water holding capacity, drip loss, thawing loss, cooking loss, shear force, texture parameters and chemical composition) were determined and sensory evaluation was performed. the castration of Greenleg partridge cockerels contributed to increases in body weight, dressing percentage, and carcass muscle and fat content, and changed the colour of bird skin and muscles. the leg muscles of capons were characterized by higher pH 24h , better water holding capacity, a tendency for higher fat concentration, and better sensory quality. the breast muscles of castrated cockerels lost more water and were tougher than the same muscles from uncastrated cockerels, but received better scores for flavour. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that the caponized Greenleg partridge cockerels can be used as a valuable material for production of high quality meat.

Effect of caponisation on physicochemical and sensory characteristics of chickens

“…Breast meat capon showed greater CP content and IMF, in comparison with roosters, but no differences were found for moisture, myoglobin, ash and collagen contents in contradiction with Miguel et al (2008), Sirri et al (2009) and Volk et al (2011) that have reported that caponisation had no effect on moisture and CP contents. Miguel et al (2008) and Calik et al (2015) indicated no differences between sexes for ash content, whereas Sirri et al (2009) registered that caponisation increased its content, which was also found in the present work. Lin and Hsu (2013) shown that moisture and ash contents were lower in capon (caponised with 10 weeks) of native Taiwan Country chicken with 28 weeks of age.…”

“…Miguel et al (2008) and Symeon et al (2010) in capons with 29 weeks (caponisation 8 weeks) and 18 to 24 weeks (early caponisation 3 weeks), respectively, reported that caponisation had no effects on pH and WHC. There were no sex differences for texture, confirming the results obtained by Symeon et al (2010) and Calik et al (2015) in capons with 18 and 24 weeks of age, respectively. However, Sirri et al (2009), Symeon et al (2010 and Lin et al (2011), observed that caponisation decreases texture values in capons with 180 days, 24 and 28 weeks of age, respectively.…”

“…No differences were found for ash (Miguel et al, 2008;Lin et al, 2011;Volk et al, 2011) CP (Miguel et al, 2008Volk et al, 2011) and collagen contents. According to Miguel et al (2008), Volk et al (2011) andCalik et al (2015) results, in capons with 24 to 29 weeks of age, found no differences between sexes for the moisture content of leg meat. However, Sirri et al (2009) in crossed Hubbard with 180 days of age found that caponisation (7 weeks) promotes the increase of moisture and ash.…”

“…Miguel et al (2008), Symeon et al (2012) and Lin and Hsu (2013), confirming that caponisation (early and traditional and slaughter between 26 and 34 weeks) increased IMF content in breast, same resulted was observed in present study (18 weeks). Nevertheless, Volk et al (2011) andCalik et al (2015) have found no differences in IMF content of breast between cocks and capons, castrated at 8 weeks and slaughtered at 24 weeks of age. Amarela showed greater moisture, ash and IMF contents and smaller myoglobin than Pedrês.…”

“…Therefore, decreasing the level of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and increasing unsaturated fatty acids, in particular polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) content in poultry meat would be of commercial interest. Caponisation increases the content of lipids in meat, which plays an important role in meat quality, because it enhances flavour, texture and juiciness of meat, compared to intact roosters (Chen et al, 2005;Lin and Hsu, 2013;Calik et al, 2015). However, reports on the caponisation effects on the quality of poultry meat are inconsistent.…”