Effects of feeding whole-grain triticale and sex on carcass and meat characteristics of common pheasants

The aim of the present research has been to determine the effect of replacing a part of commercial compound feed with whole triticale grain on the body weight (BW), body measurements, feed conversion ratio (FCR), carcass composition and meat quality of pheasants. The study involved 80 one-d-old common pheasants. From 71 to 112 d of rearing, two diets were administered: a complete commercial diet ad libitum for control pheasants and restricted amounts of a commercial diet (50%) and whole triticale grain (50%) for experimental pheasants. Each treatment consisted of 4 replications, 10 birds each. Introducing whole triticale grain did not cause significant changes in BW, body measurements, feed intake and FCR. The carcasses of 112-d-old pheasants fed whole triticale grain diet showed a significantly lower breast muscle content (%) and a significantly higher content of skin with subcutaneous fat and carcass remainders (p < .05). Breast muscles of pheasants fed commercial compound feed and whole triticale grain exhibited significantly higher hardness, chewiness and gumminess, more palmitic acid and zinc, as well as significantly less sodium, water, linoleic acid, paullinic acid, heptadeconoic acid. There were also significant changes in water and protein, the content of fatty acids in leg muscles, except for myristic acid, pentadecanoic acid, arachidonic acid and nervonic acid. Irrespective of the type of diet, males showed a significantly higher body weight, body measurements and carcass weight, and their breast muscles demonstrated significantly higher WB shear force and the amounts of protein, linoleic acid, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc