Nutritional and sensorial meat quality of different selected Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

AbstractDescendents of S18 generation of Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica), selected for low (line 11, n=15) or high (line 12, n=6) yolk cholesterol content, egg type (line 13, n=15), and meat type (line 8, n=15) chosen as unselected control, were used for this experiment to study performance as well as nutritional and sensorial meat quality. The lowering of yolk cholesterol content in the line 11 was 313 mg/100 g yolk, and the increasing of yolk cholesterol content in the line 12 was 116 mg/100 g yolk, i.e. -17.25 %, and +6.39% in comparison to parental line 13, respectively. Quail-chicks were grown in a deep litter floor up to 35 days of age, under continuous lighting, with water and feed (a commercial diet) ad libitum until 12h before slaughtering, when feed was withdrawn. The body weight of the quails was controlled every week (from week 1 to 5). At the end of the experiment, all the birds were slaughtered (at avg. weight of 209.3a vs 104.0b, 107.7b and 110.6b g for lines 8, 11, 12 and 13, ..