DOI: 10.5176/2382-5685_VETSCI13.78
Authors: P.Muthusamy, D.Thyagarajan, P.Tensingh Gnanaraj and P.N.Richard Jagatheesan
Abstract:
The emu bird (Dromaius novaehollandiae) is a large, flightless bird originated from Australia belonging to the order struthioniformes and the family casuaridae, underwhich the ostrich, rhea, kiwi, and cassowary also belongs.All of these birds are flightless, have reduced wings and no keel on the sternum.
Emus have been around for thousands of years; although their commercial value was not recognized until 1987, when emu farming was first time licensed in Western Australia. Many valuable products are derived from the emu; however, the three most important are meat, leather and oil. Of these three, the oil was the major objective of this study. Emu is proven successful in Australia, with a thriving commercial emu market.
In India, emu farming started in 1996 with germplasm imported from USA. Majority of the existing farms are rearing the birds for breeding purpose. Few farms have started organized with regular slaughter.An attempt was made to study the fatty acid profile of emu birds in different age groups.Emu fat was collected from three different age groups of emu namely 14,15 and 16 months old.Emu fat was processed to obtain emu oil and emu oil was analysed for fatty acid profile using Gas chromatography. The results revealed that linolenic acid and value of unsaturated fatty acids showed a significant difference (P≤ 0.05) between different age groups of emu while other parameters like myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid,oleic acid, linoleic acid, palmitoleic acid and saturated fatty acid values did not show any significant difference in different age groups of emu.It can be concluded that emu oil contains approximately 70 percent unsaturated fatty acids and the major fatty acid found in emu oil was oleic acid,which is mono unsaturated fatty acid and it contains two essential fatty acids namely Linoleic and linolenic acids which are beneficial for human health.
Keywords: Emu, emu oil, fatty acid profile, age groups
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