Carcass and Meat Quality Characteristics Influenced by Sex in Pekin Duck

Fattening performance and meat quality are essential for consumers and producers in duck breeding.Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effect of sex on carcass and meat quality characteristics in Pekin Duck.The experiment was conducted on 20 female and 20 male ducks.Ducks were reared with a feeding program to standard commercial practices.Ducks were fed a diet containing 22% crude protein (CP) and 2950 kcal/kg ME for the first four weeks and 16% CP and 3100 kcal/kg ME from the 5th to 10th weeks.At the end of the feeding period, all ducks were transported to an abattoir, and a standard commercial slaughter procedure was carried out.Warm carcass weights were measured after removing all internal organs and abdominal fat.The eviscerated carcasses were chilled for 24 h at four °C and reweighed to determine cold carcass weight.The pH and color values were determined at one h and 24h post-mortem in pectoralis major (PM) and gastrocnemius (GN) muscles.Texture characteristics, drip loss, cooking loss, frozen-thawing loss, and water-holding capacity were determined in PM and GN muscles.Slaughter weight, hot and cold carcass weights of male Pekin ducks were higher than female ducks (p<0.05).There were no significant differences between the sexes of ducks in terms of carcass yield.GN muscles of female ducks were more red than male ducks, but female ducks had less yellowness PM muscle than male ducks after 1 hour from slaughter (p<0.05).The female ducks had higher cooking loss value in GN muscle compared to male ducks (p<0.05).The hardness, springiness, gumminess, and chewiness values of the GN muscle of female ducks were higher (p<0.05)than those of male ducks.The study's results showed that sex significantly affects carcass and meat quality characteristics in Peking ducks.