Nutritional Significance and Health Benefits of Quail’s Meat and Eggs: An Empirical Review

Abstract

With increasing population, there has been an increased demand for animal protein sources i.e., meat and eggs. The cost of production for rearing animals is also a big problem of the current era. Thus, the use of small birds like quail is getting attention due to their low feed requirements and rapid growth. Furthermore, the nutritional quality like amino acid, fatty acid, vitamins, minerals, and protein composition of its egg and meat has more benefits than other birds. Despite their small size, quail eggs have three to four times the nutritious value of chicken eggs and are high in vitamins and minerals. The fatty acids such as oleic, linoleic, palmitic, and stearic acid are most prevalent in the meat of quail. Oleic acid exists around 1/3 of the total fatty acids in the quail breast meat and it is 47.7 and 37.1 percent higher than broiler and duck meat, respectively. Quail meat considered good because of its high oleic acid content, which has been linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases. A number of evidence exist that showed the superiority of quail eggs and meat compared with other poultry species. The present review aimed to cover the study related to quail egg and meat nutritional composition, their nutraceutical importance and suggest ways to capitalize from the information for future purposes.