Effect of sex and age on cholesterol and fatty acid content in turkey meat

Twenty-six female (F) and thirty-four male (M) turkeys of the BUT Big 6 hybrid fed a commercial feed mixture were successively slaughtered in one-week intervals from 10(th) to 18(th) (females) and from 10(th) to 25(th) (males) week of age. Musculus pectoralis profundus (breast meat, BM) and in. biceps femoris + m. semitendinosus + in. semimembranosus (thigh meat, TM) were separated. Cholesterol and 15 fatty acids were determined in both tissues by HPLC and GC, respectively, after extraction of total lipid by hexane/2-propanol mixture. Despite the higher (P < 0.01) total lipid content in TM of both sexes in comparison with BM (3.02 and 1.38% in F at 14 weeks of age, and 2.80 and 2.28% in M at 20 weeks of age, respectively), each sex deposited total lipid in BM more than twice as intensely as in TM. Cholesterol content (mg/100 g of fresh tissue; Y) decreased significantly (P < 0.001) 2 with age (days; X) in male tissues (Y = 61.5 - 0.142X, R-2 = 0.34 and Y = 100.0 - 0.245X, R-2 = 0.49 in BM and TM, respectively), but females deposited cholesterol with constant rate irrespective of age (P > 0.05). Content of the sum of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid (EPA + DHA; mg/100 g; Y) did not change with increasing age in female tissues (P > 0.05), but decreased (P < 0.01) both in M-BM (Y = 47.50. 107X, R-2 = 0.30) and in M-TM (Y = 69.8 - 0.196X, R-2 = 0.50). Arachidonic acid content (AA; mg/100 g) decreased with age 2 in BM of both sexes (Y = 49.9 - 0.143X, R-2 = 0.22, P < 0.05 and Y = 50.8-0.125X, R-2 = 0.35, P < 0.001 for females and males, respectively), but did not change (P > 0.05) in TM of either sex. Ratio of n-6 PUFA/n-3 PUFA in females was not influenced by age in BM (P > 0.05), but significantly (P < 0.001) decreased 2 with increasing age in TM (Y = 6.6 - 0.015X, R-2 = 0.49). Opposite results were found in male tissues: independence of age (P > 0.05) in TM and significant (P < 0.001) increase in BM (Y = 2.1 + 0.017X, R-2 = 0.65). At usual slaughter age, males in comparison with females tended to have lower cholesterol content in meat (108 and 121 mg, respectively in 100 g BM + 100 g TM), but also lower content of EPA + DHA (76 and 90 mg, respectively in 100 g BM + 100 g TM). Content of AA was the same (96 and 97 mg, respectively).