The aim of the study was to compare Muscovy ducks and mule ducks for proximate analysis, colour attributes, sensory properties of the meat, and concentration of some minerals in the meat and liver, with consideration of the effect of sex on the analysed traits. The study used 46 Muscovy and 44 mule ducks. At the end of the rearing period, 40 birds (10 males and 10 females of each genotype) were selected for slaughter. Meat and liver samples were collected from the slaughtered birds to determine quality traits. The analysed ducks of different genotypes differed significantly in the water content, sodium content, and redness of breast muscles; in the water, fat, and zinc content of leg muscles; and in the sodium, iron, and copper content of liver. Regardless of genotype, males had a higher sodium content in breast muscles; contained more protein, sodium, phosphorus, and magnesium and less potassium and copper in leg muscles; and had a significantly higher content of sodium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, iron, and copper in liver compared to females. The genotype–sex interaction was significant for the sodium and potassium content of breast muscles, for the water, protein, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and copper content of leg muscles, and for the copper content of liver. Our study provided information about differences in the quality of meat and liver in Muscovy and mule ducks.
In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the world production of duck meat. In 2000–2017 (FAOSTAT, 2019) duck meat production
increased by 53.8 % (from
The main producer of duck meat in the world is Asia (especially China), which supplies around 84 % of the global duck meat production. In Asia, the principal breed of ducks used for meat production is Pekin. In Europe, which supplies around 11 % of world duck meat production, Pekin dominates in most countries (especially in northern and central eastern Europe), while mule and Muscovy ducks predominate in the Mediterranean countries (especially in France and Italy) (Retailleau, 1999; Wołoszyn, 2002; Mazurowski et al., 2016)
Muscovy ducks owe their popularity not only to the conformation traits but also to the slightly higher content of breast and leg meat, and a lower content of skin with subcutaneous fat and abdominal fat in the carcass, which better meets the requirements of the consumers of duck meat compared to Pekin duck carcasses. Under the intensive system, female Muscovy ducks are raised to 9–10 weeks, and males are raised to 11–12 weeks of age. Despite the many advantages, Muscovy duck production is not significant in many countries of the world, due to the longer rearing period, higher prophylaxis and nutrition costs, lower egg production, and worse conversion of feed to kilograms of meat or eggs compared to Pekin ducks (Bednarczyk, 1981; Biesiada-Drzazga, 2012; Różewicz and Kaszperuk, 2017).
Mule ducks are relatively tolerant of adverse environmental conditions, temperature changes, and diseases. They exhibit a relatively fast rate of growth, rather good feed conversion, and good meat quality. Intensively raised broiler mule ducks are slaughtered at 11–12 weeks of age or fattened to produce foie gras. Production of mule ducks is a specialty of France, where they are used for foie gras production. Only male mule ducks are force-fattened in France (females have lower liver weight), compared to ducks of both sexes in Taiwan (Wołoszyn, 2002). In France, 97 % of foie gras comes from male mule ducks, and the meat of mule ducks accounts for around 58 % of the global duck meat production in this country (Braine, 2010).
In the last dozen years or so, relatively few research publications compared the quality of meat from Muscovy and mule ducks (Wawro et al., 2004; Chartrin et al., 2006; Lucia et al., 2008; Khaziev et al., 2018), which provided an incentive to undertake the present study.
The objective of the study was to compare the commercial hybrids of Muscovy and mule ducks for basic chemical composition, content of some minerals, physicochemical and sensory properties of the breast and/or leg meat, and the content of selected minerals in the liver. The obtained results allowed us to determine differences in the nutritive and technological value of Muscovy and mule duck meat and to point out which ducks better meet the requirements of duck meat processors and consumers.
The study used 46 Muscovy ducks (21 males and 25 females) derived from drake
MMLCFFCZCK and duck CRAMMLCFF, with parents imported from the French company
Grimaud Frères, and 44 mule ducks of the STE MULARD set (23 males and 21 females) derived from parents (male Muscovy duck and female Pekin duck)
imported from the French company Couvoir de la Mésangère. Muscovy
ducks and mule broilers were purchased in Poland. The 1 d old sexed
ducklings were brought to the farm from a hatchery, wing-banded with padlock
tags, and grouped by genotype and sex. Ducks were kept on deep litter in four pens (each with an area of 12 m
Throughout rearing, ducks had 24 h access to water and were fed commercial diets ad libitum. From 1 to 21 d, ducks received a starter diet in crumble form, which contained 20.62 % crude protein (CP) and 12.19 MJ metabolizable energy (ME) per kilogram. From 22 to 70 d (Muscovy females) or from 22 to 84 d (Muscovy males and mule males and females) were fed a commercial grower/finisher diet containing 17.59 % CP and 12.68 MJ ME per kilogram. The data for ingredient composition and the basic chemical composition, energy value and content of selected amino acids, and calcium and available phosphorus of the starter and grower/finisher diets fed to ducks are shown in Table 1.
Ingredients and chemical composition of the diets for ducks.
Female Muscovy ducks were slaughtered at 70 d of age, and Muscovy ducks
(males) and mule ducks (males and females) at 84 d of age. A total of 40 birds were slaughtered for the tests (10 males and 10 females from each
genetic group). Birds whose body weights were closest to the mean arithmetic
body weight of males or females of a given genotype were selected for
slaughter. Before slaughter, birds were fasted for 10 h but had unlimited
access to water. Birds were slaughtered, defeathered and eviscerated on the
farm. Birds were manually slaughtered by stunning with a club and cutting
their blood vessels in the neck. The obtained carcasses were chilled for 18 h in a Hendi refrigerated cabinet (Hendi, Gądki, Poland) at 4
The basic chemical composition (water, protein, fat, collagen content) of the breast and leg muscles of the ducks was determined by near-infrared transmission spectroscopy using calibration with artificial neural networks (ANN) with a FoodScan analyser (FoodScan Laboratory, Foss, Cheshire, UK).
The colour of meat was determined on the inner surface of raw breast muscles
(superficial pectoral muscle) and leg muscles (thigh and drumstick muscles,
following dissection of the patella and tendons and grinding) 24 h
postmortem, after carcass chilling. The parameters
The amount of total pigments in the samples of breast and leg muscles was
measured as haematin according to the procedure of Hornsey (1956). Filter
optical density (
Meat tenderness was determined by an Instron method using an Instron 3342 tensiometer (Instron Corp. USA) with a Warner-Bratzler (WB) tool. The test
samples were stored frozen until determinations. After thawing, they were
heated in a water bath to an internal temperature of 70
To determine the content of some minerals (sodium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, iron, copper), the meat and liver samples were lyophilized and wet mineralized in an Ethos Plus microwave digester (Milestone, Sorisole, Italy). The samples were analysed using an atomic absorption spectrometer (Thermo Scientific iCE 3000, Cambridge, United Kingdom). The meat samples were analysed for phosphorus content by the spectrophotometric method using a Marcel Media Eko spectrometer (Marcel, Warsaw, Poland). The mineral content in meat and liver were prepared and determined according to Polish standards.
Sensory properties were assessed on heat-treated meat obtained from the
breasts. The meat samples were heat treated in 0.6 % brine solution to an
internal temperature of 80
Basic chemical composition of the breast and leg muscles of ducks of different genotypes.
BM – breast muscle, LM – leg muscle.
Content of some minerals in milligrams per 100 g of breast or leg meat from ducks of different genotypes.
BM – breast muscle, LM – leg muscle.
The numerical data collected for basic chemical composition, selected
minerals, physicochemical and sensory traits of the meat, and mineral
content in liver were subjected to statistical analysis. Arithmetic mean and
standard error of the mean were calculated for each trait (together for both
groups). Two-way analysis of variance was used to determine the effect of
genotype and sex on the above meat characteristics of the ducks. To this
end, the following linear model was used:
The statistics for meat quality traits were calculated with SAS version 9.4
software (SAS Institute Inc., 2013). Significant differences between the
compared ducks of different genotypes and between males and females were
determined with Tukey's test. The level of significance was at
Content of some minerals in milligrams per 100 g of liver from ducks of different genotypes.
Selected physicochemical traits of the breast and leg muscles of ducks of different genotypes.
BM – breast muscle, LM – leg muscle.
Muscovy and mule ducks showed differences (
Sensory properties of pectoralis major muscle in ducks of different genotypes.
Duck genotype had a significant (
The compared genetic groups of the ducks differed (
Analysis of the present results (Table 5) shows that the compared groups of
the ducks differed significantly in the redness of breast muscles.
Significantly higher redness values were found for the breast meat of
Muscovy compared to mule ducks. The analysed groups of ducks did not differ
significantly (
Our study demonstrated a nonsignificant effect of genotype and sex on the
sensory traits, i.e. aroma and taste intensity and desirability, and on the
tenderness and juiciness of breast muscles (Table 6). Our study found
nonsignificantly greater juiciness of breast muscles from male Muscovy and
mule ducks with a higher fat content. The breast muscles of male Muscovy
ducks with a higher fat content (
In summary, mule ducks were characterized by significantly lower water and sodium content, redness of breast muscle, and also lower water and higher fat and zinc content in leg muscle, as well as higher copper and lower sodium and iron content in the liver compared to Muscovy ducks. The sex of birds had a significant effect on the mineral content (Na, K, P, Mg, Zn, Fe, Cu) of the liver and leg muscles (except for iron and zinc) and on the sodium content of the breast muscle.
The data are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Dariusz Kokoszyński wrote the paper and developed the methodology, made the description of the methods used to determine the studied traits for methodology and laboratory analyses, made the calculations, and assumed primary responsibility for the final content; Anna Wilkanowska made the description of the methods used to determine the studied traits for methodology, performed the research, and analysed the data; Henrieta Arpášová and Cyril Hrnčár read and made the corrections, wrote the paper, and developed the methodology. Finally, all the authors commented on the early and final drafts of the paper.
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
This research was realized from statutory research funds BS-13/2009 assigned by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
This paper was edited by Steffen Maak and reviewed by Catherine Larzul and one anonymous referee.