Quality and composition of meat in different productive types of domestic quail

The aim of the current work was to present the main quality characteristics and composition of the meat of the most valuable parts of the carcass - breasts and legs of 35-day-old domestic quails from meat, dual-purpose and egg-laying type. The obtained results give basis to assume that the glycogen reserve of the pectoral muscle can be associated with the productive type, which was the highest in quails of the meat type line WG (ΔрН=-0.573±0.053 compared to ΔрН=- 0.299±0.059 in egg-laying line А, P <0.001). In the process of storing quail meat during the first 24 hours the values of the three color coordinates increased by an average of 12.5% for lightness, 16.4% for redness and 42% for yellowing of the meat. The pigment saturation of M. pectoralis superficialis largely depends on the productive type of birds, which determined 15.9% of the variance of the trait ( P <0.05). It was the highest in quail eggs, and the stability of their color characteristics during the first 24 hours was the highest, which makes the visual perception of color in them closer to game meat. Higher crude protein content ( P <0.001), lower fat ( P <0.001) and gross energy ( P <0.05) in M. pectoralis superficialis in meat type birds, compared to egg-laying quails, makes their breast meat more dietary and more in line with consumer preferences. The content of essential amino acids in quail meat fully meets the needs of the human body, and the content of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids covers approximately 2/3 of the needs.