Abstract

I. O. Dudusola

The quality characteristics and proximate composition of the eggs of quail and guinea fowl were compared. The eggs of the two species had an oval conical shape with blunt and pointed ends. The shape indices of both the eggs had no statistical difference. As very well apparent, guinea fowl eggs (46.65g) were much heavy than the Quail eggs (10.34g). Proportion of yolk to total egg weight was higher in quail (31.4%) than guinea fowl (30.6%) Similarly, albumen content was higher in quail (61.2%) than guinea fowl (55.9%), however the ratio of yolk to albumen was higher in guinea fowl (0.55) than quail (0.52). The portion of shell to the total egg weight was higher in guinea fowl (13.5%) than in quail (7.3%). Similarly, the guinea fowl eggs showed much thicker shell (462.8???m) as compared to quail egg (174.8 ???m). The moisture content, crude protein, crude fat and crude ash of whole eggs were 74.47%, 12.77%, 10.83% and 1.10% for guinea fowl egg and 74.26%, 11.98%, 11.91% and 1.04% for quail eggs, respectively, with no statistical difference (p>0.05) between species. No species difference in the proximate composition of albumen and yolk was found except in the crude ash content of albumen which was which was significantly higher in quail egg