Acta Vet. Brno 2011, 80: 197-202
Energy value of meat in selected species of feathered game
The aim of this work was to compare gross energy (GE) in breast and thigh muscles in the following six species of feathered game reared in Europe: guineafowl (Numida meleagris), common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica), chukar (Alectoris chucar), grey partridge (Perdix perdix) and wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). Calorimetric analysis revealed significant (P ≤ 0.05) and highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) differences between individual species in the content of energy in breast and thigh muscles. The highest content of energy (recalculated to dry matter) was found in breast muscles from wild turkey (24.75 MJ·kg-1) and Japanese quail (24.57 MJ·kg-1) whereas the highest content of energy (recalculated to dry matter) in thigh muscles was found in Japanese quail and grey partridge. Highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) differences in the energy content were also found between breast and thigh muscles in all studied game species except for wild turkey. Differences in the content of energy in muscles between individual species occur mainly due to different contents of fat in muscles. This is also confirmed by high correlation coefficients between the content of energy and the content of fat in breast (r = 0.912) and thigh muscles (r = 0.878). Our study provides more specific data on the amount of energy in muscles of major species of feathered game reared in Europe and significantly extends current knowledge in this field.
