Effect of post-mortem electrical stimulation and phenolicrich plant extracts on breast meat quality of Muscovy ducks reared under the duck-rice integration system

ABSTRACT

uck production is getting popular in smallholder production systems in Africa due to better adaptability of ducks to wide environmental conditions than chickens. Nevertheless, the duck meat has lower consumer acceptance in Africa due to its toughness, less juiciness and darkness in colour than chicken meat. Electrical stimulation and plant extracts are used to enhance meat tenderness and colour. Their interactive effect was explored to improve meat tenderness and colour of breast meat of ducks under the duck-rice integration. A total of 28, twelve-week old female Muscovy ducks of similar weight (1.474 ± 0.128kg), were harvested and allocated to four treatment combinations ( n=7) arranged in a completely randomized design with 2×2 factorial treatment structure. The treatment combinations were: (1) electrical stimulation (ES) only; (2) ES+ Vachellia polycantha plant extracts,(3) plant extracts only and (4)without ES and plant extracts. Combination of the post-mortem-electrical stimulation (ES) and phenolic-rich plant extracts did not improve the physical meat quality characteristics of duck breast meat. However, electrical stimulation and plant extracts separately improved meat tenderness. The yellowness (b*) colour values were only improved by the addition of plant extracts only. The minimal effects of electrical stimulation in combination with plant extracts may have been due to inherently high iron, haem and type IIA in duck breasts which may have influenced physical meat quality parameter response to electrical stimulation and plant extracts.