Carcass Characteristics, Meat Quality and Nutritional Profile of Pheasant, Quail and Guinea Fowl

Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest in meat from non-conventional animal species, which have a deep-rooted tradition of consumption in some countries. Nowadays modern society have a purchase behaviour based on food safety, nutritional composition, taste/flavour, health aspects of foods and price. The consumption of traditional meat at this time is stagnating and consumers are looking for other alternative types of meats. In this context, this chapter tackles three alternative poultry breeds pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) and Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), which have a great potential and demand in markets of western countries. Despite the fact that meat from these poultry species has numerous advantages such as higher protein level, lower fat content, reduced calories and higher amount of some essential vitamins, fatty acid and amino acids, there is a still lack of knowledge about meat from these birds. Therefore, the aim of this review is an attempt to collect the existing information and shed light on knowledge of carcass features and meat quality properties as well as a briefly review of those variables than can affect meat obtained from these birds.