Abstract

A study to evaluate the effect of age on physico-chemical, cholesterol and proximate composition of chicken and quail meat was evaluated. One hundred poultry bird comprising of 50 chickens (Harco black) and 50 quail Japanese were randomly allocated based on a completely randomized design. Birds were kept for 20 weeks and fed with compounded feeds ad libitum, and at 4, 8, 16 and 20 weeks, 5 birds each were randomly selected, and the thigh and breast were evaluated for the physic-chemical, cholesterol and proximate composition. Results reveal that, crude protein content was significantly higher in chicken breast (21.48) at 4 weeks and at 16 weeks in quail breast (21.93), ether extract  was highest  in the thigh of both chicken and quail (6.33 and 5.06) at 4 weeks of age and thereafter it decreased with increase in age of birds, respectively. Ash content was significantly (P<0.05) higher at 8 weeks for quail breast (1.73) and at 20 weeks for chicken breast (1.76) and the moisture content was significantly higher at 4 weeks for both quail (79.19) and chicken (76.51) thigh. Physiochemical analysis revealed that, the thermal and cold shortening were highest at 16 weeks of age for both quail and chicken meat (26.9 and 43.10), respectively. The cooking loss was highest (P<0.05) at eight weeks for chicken (91.30) and at four weeks for quail (90.80), water holding capacity was highest (P<0.05) (43.10) at 16 weeks in chicken meat. Cholesterol content was lowest at 16 weeks of age as compared to 4 and 20 weeks in chicken breast, whereas quail breast revealed higher values eight weeks of age. The breast of both birds (chicken and quail) had the best values for protein and ash content but highest in cholesterol content, while the thigh had the lowest cholesterol value but highest ether extracts content for both samples.

Key word: Cholesterol, thigh, breast, chicken and quail meat.