Abstracto

Influence of sex on carcass and physicochemical quality of indigenous Turkey breed

Aremo JO, Omojola AB

Physicochemical and carcass characteristics of matured Indigenous Turkey Breed (ITB) as influenced by sex was investigated using completely randomized design. A total of ten ITB were distributed into two treatments. Each treatment was replicated five times. The turkeys were slaughter in batches of two under the prevailing commercial condition and dissected into primal cuts. Samples for cooking loss, shear force, water holding capacity, chilling loss and proximate composition evaluations were taken from the breast and thigh portion. Results obtained showed that the live male indigenous turkey (MIT) was heavier (P<0.05) (5.43 kg) than the female indigenous turkey (FIT) 3.78 kg. However, dressing percentages were similar (P>0.05) but higher in MIT 67.09% than in FIT 65.91%. The percent lean was highest in MIT breast thigh and drumsticks with the values 84.49%, 82.21% and 76.66% respectively. All percentage primal cuts were not influenced (P<0.05) by sex except percent back of FIT 14.98% that was higher (P<0.05) than MIT 12.12%. Shear force, water holding capacity and cooking loss values were not affected by sex for thigh and breast meat evaluated. Chilling loss of MIT breast and thigh meat were significantly higher (P<0.05). Ether extracts showed significant differences (P<0.05) with higher values in MIT thigh 6.47% and FIT breast meat 7.86% similarly, ash content of FIT breast meat 0.94% and thigh meat 1.38% and crude protein of FIT thigh meat 21.23% were significantly higher. High proportion of lean meat for the breast, thigh and drumsticks of ITB irrespective of sex showed that indigenous turkey can be packaged in primal cuts and commercialized.