Meat Characteristics of Ducks Commonly Found in Nigerian Markets

Abstract

The consumption of duck meat if encouraged can be employed as a tool to alleviate poverty and ensure food security among the economically disadvantaged peasant farmers. The continued decline in duck industry and duck meat consumption in Nigeria is a matter of great concern. Yield and meat quality traits of 3 strains of duck which include Rouen, Perkins and Muscovy were investigated. A total of 30 6 matured male ducks with 12 ducks from each strain were used for the study in a completely randomized design. The ducks were slaughtered in batches of 3 under a commercial condition after they have been starved of feed for 12 h. They were properly bled, defeathered and dressed. The carcasses were chilled at 2oC for 24 h immediately after dressing before cutting up into primal cuts. Samples for cooking loss, shear force and organoleptic evaluations were taken from the breast muscle. The dressing out percent was highest in Muscovy with a value of 71.18% followed by Rouen (68.90%) and least in Perkin ducks with a value of 66.67%. Muscovy duck gave the highest values (P < 0.05) in the wing, breast and back with values of 15.27, 20.03 and 18.34% respectively, while Perkin ducks gave the least values of 14.65 and 13.38% for breast and back respectively. The water holding capacity (WHC) was highest in the Perkin ducks (71.06%) while Muscovy and Rouen gave 66.10 and 64.65% respectively. The percent chilling and cooking losses were similar (P > 0.05) in the 3 strains. Tenderness, juiciness texture and overall acceptability (OA) were rated highest (P < 0.05) in meat from Rouen ducks while the panellist gave the least score to meat from Muscovy in juiciness and OA. The high proportion of lean meat in the breast and wing showed that duck meat can be packaged and marketed successfully as one of the meat alternatives especially in the rural areas.