FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 4 



wrapped in Saran** film and aluminum foil, 

 identified, and stored at -30°C until analyzed. 



Oil content was determined on composites of 

 18-g samples of the individual thighs and breasts 

 from each bird by the modified method of Smith, 

 Ambrose, and Knobl (1964). Methyl esters for 

 gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) analyses were 

 prepared from the same oil extract by the method 

 of Metcalfe, Schmitz, and Pelka (1966). The GLC 

 column was 10% diethylene glycol adipate on Gas 

 Chrom Q. GLC conditions were as follows: column, 

 196°C; injector, 250°C; flame ionization detector, 

 300°C; carrier gas flow, 24.6 cm^/min. 



Organoleptic analyses for the turkeys in Exper- 

 iment I were performed by ranking. The panelists 

 ranked four samples per session (of which one 

 sample was a control). Comments about off 

 flavors, if present, were solicited (e.g., fishy, ox- 

 idized, rancid, etc.). In Experiments II and III, 

 organoleptic analyses were performed by scoring, 

 using a balanced incomplete block technique. 

 Analyses of variance and a Duncan multiple 

 range test were calculated for Experiment II. Re- 

 gression equations were calculated for breast and 

 thigh meat and skin for Experiment III. 



RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 



Experiment I 



All turkeys in Experiment I seemed to have 

 grown normally and to have been in good nutri- 



■'Reference to a company or product name does not imply 

 approval or recommendation of the product by the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture or the National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 NOAA, to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. 



tional health. The mean dressed weight was 991 g, 

 with no significant weight differences between 

 groups. 



Table 1 gives the results of GLC analyses and 

 lipid content (grams/100 g) of breast and thigh 

 meat from the turkeys fed linseed and tuna oils to 

 6 wk of age. As expected, the thigh contained 

 nearly twice the amount of lipid as the breast, 

 (about 2% and 1% extracted lipid, respectively). 

 The distribution of the methyl esters of fatty acids 

 showed consistently higher percentages of C 16:0, 

 C18:0, C20:4, C22:5, and C22:6 in the breast, but 

 higher C 18: 3 (when present in the diet), C 18: 2 and 

 C18:1 in the thigh for all treatments. The lipid 

 composition of the leg and breast reflect generally 

 that of the dietary oils. 



Results of organoleptic evaluation of the tur- 

 keys are reported in Table 2. The scoring (by rank) 

 shows that 1% tuna oil imparts oflfflavor (slight) in 

 breast and thigh meat and somewhat the same 

 trend is indicated for odor evaluation, especially 

 in the breast meat. But no clear trend is indicated 

 for the skin. In general, flavor was judged as excel- 

 lent. Ofttimes, there were no clear differences in a 

 given set of comparisons. There were only a few 

 scattered comments that described the flavor as 

 fishy. No consistent differences were found be- 

 tween samples with and without ethoxyquin. 



The lack of the development of positive fishy 

 flavor in this experiment was unexpected since the 

 oils fed to the turkeys contained high levels of 

 linolenicacid (linseed oil, ca. 57%Cl8:3co3)or one 

 of its longer-chained homologues (tuna oil, ca. 32% 

 C22:6c<j3). Fishy flavors have been induced in poul- 

 try by other investigators using oils that con- 

 tained far less linolenates than used in this exper- 



Table 1. — Methyl ester fatty acid composition' of linseed oil and tuna oil and lipids extracted from turkeys^ fed to 6 wk of age diets 

 containing varying levels of safflower, linseed, and tuna oils with and without ethoxyquin. 



Fatty acid 



Linseed 

 oil 



Tuna 

 oil 



IB 



IT 



2B 



2T 



38 3T 48 4T 



58 



5T 



68 6T 



78 



7T 



88 8T 



C16:0 + 



ISO C16:0 

 C18:0 

 018:1 

 018:2 

 C18:3u)3 

 C20:4uj6 

 C20:5oj3 

 C22:3lo3 

 C22:5tj3 

 C22:6u;3 

 '/, lipid. 



g/IOOg 



tissue 



5.3 14.2 18.4 12.1 18.2 13.6 19.0 11.5 15.7 11.1 17.5 12,5 19.0 14.0 18.5 13.0 17.5 13.1 



3.8 5.5 12.3 8.4 13.0 9 14 9 10 1 11.9 6.7 12.8 8.5 12 6 7.5 10.3 8.9 9.5 5.7 



18.1 15.8 10.2 13.9 9.1 16.6 11.4 15.7 14.6 18.8 10,3 14.2 9.5 14.8 9.3 13.7 11.7 17.3 



150 4.8 37.8 52.0 40 3 47.1 28.6 35.3 33.5 36.9 33.7 49.2 34.2 48.5 32.5 46.0 38.8 48.0 



57.8 — — — — — 4,1 14.6 10.5 19.6 — — — — — — — — 



— 3.0 12.0 6.3 10.1 5.6 7.1 4.0 4.3 19 8.9 4 8 9.1 3.9 8.9 4 3 5 6 2 6 



— 7.9 — — — — 2.3 — — — — — — — 1.8 — — — 



— — 2.5 — 2.3 — — — — — — — — — — — — — 



— 1.8— — — — 3.4 — 2.2— — — — — — — — — 



— 32.5 — — — — 3.9 — 1.9 — 79 37 79 32 11.6 5.2 8.9 4,0 



— — 0,88 1,87 0,92 2,12 0,95 1,86 1,40 3,01 1,22 2,12 1,02 2,29 0,92 1.97 1,17 3,03 



'Fatty acids in amounts of 2ri or less omitted, 8 = Breast meat; T = thigh meat, 



K^JIi^l^^'^^ °' '^'■'^^ys were fed a basal diet plus an oil supplement for 6 wk. Group 1 = 4^:i safflower oil (SO), Group 2 = (same as 1 ) + 125 ppm ethoxyquin 

 L.J^°"^^" ^"' SO + 3'^?^ linseedoil(LO),Group4 = (sameas3) + 125 ppm EMQ,Group5 = 3.59f SO + 0.5':?: tuna oil (TO), Group 6 = (same as 5) + 125 

 Dm EMC, Group 7 = 3't SO + Vr, TO, Group 8 = (same as 7) + 125 ppm EMQ 



1034 



