Carcass And Meat Quality Of Overfed Waterfowl

The meat of overfed ducks and geese is quite different from that of waterfowl fed ad libitum, particularly because of its higher lipid content (2-fold more) affecting the nutritional and sensorial quality of products and their storage ability. However, these characteristics can be quite variable according to the technical conditions used during rearing and overfeeding periods such as the composition and distribution modalities of diets, age at the beginning of the overfeeding period and duration of overfeeding. The pre-slaughter conditions and the slaughtering and processing technologies are also important. The genetic parameters of carcass and meat quality traits have been mainly evaluated for ducks. Meat quality traits are weakly heritable. Recently, few QTL have been highlighted particularly for cooking loss, pH and meat texture. The knowledge of the genes involved in the control of these parameters should in the short or long term allow including them in selection programmes.