The family poultry production in Benin is based on a variety of local ecotypes including Holli and Fulani breeds. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of production system and post-mortem aging time on the meat of their crossbred F1 (Holli x Fulani). Therefore, 60 hybrid chicks were divided into 2 group and reared respectively under conventional modern housing system (Lot1) and under backyard free range system (Lot2). At the age of 24 weeks, 10 cockerels (male) of each lot of similar live weight were slaughtered according to the conventional for meat quality assessment at different post-mortem aging time. It comes out from the study that the best carcass yields at 1 h and 24 h post-mortem were recorded in hybrid chickens raised under modern breeding systems (P<0.01). Technologically, it appears that the production system influenced only the pH recorded at 24h post-mortem (5.92 vs 5.88; P<0.05), luminance (57.98 vs 59.4; P<0.01), yellow index (3.46 vs 4.51; P<0.01); chromaticity (8.43 vs 9.09; P<0.01) and the water holding capacity of meat (28.47 vs 31.68; P<0.01). Significant variabilities of the technological quality of meat were also recorded according to muscle type. Nutritionally, the production system did not affect the meat’s dry matter and ash contents. However, the lowest fat content (1.72% vs 2.3%) and highest fat protein content (20.96% vs 20.01%) were recorded in the traditional system meat samples (P<0.001). Sensorially, meat from chickens raised under the traditional production system with access to natural pasture and those that have undergone 24 hours of maturation recorded the highest scores for all sensory parameters.

The local guinea fowl population of Benin is characterized by a diversity of varieties including Bonaparte reared according to different production systems. The study aims to assess the impact of guinea fowl rearing with or without outdoor access on the egg quality. Therefore, 120 fresh new laid eggs collected from 30 weeks old guinea fowl, of which 60 eggs produced under confinement rearing without outdoor access (lot1) and 60 produced under confinement rearing with outdoor access (lot2) were used for the study. The physical, technological and nutritional parameters of each egg were then evaluated by lot. It appears that the production system had significantly affected the egg shell thickness, the shell weight, the yolk diameter, the intensity of the yolk yellowness index, the yolk hue value and the yolk chromacity value, the yolk percentage, the egg shape index and the albumin percentage (P˂0.05). The technological parameters of the eggs were not affected by the production system (p> 0.05). Nutritionally, the eggs of the lot 2 were richer in protein (13.81% vs. 13.24%) and total minerals (0.96% vs. 0.92%) than those from the lot 1 (P˂0, 05). In contrast, the eggs from lot 1 had recorded the highest fat content (11.8% vs. 11.2%; P˂0.05). Significant strong positive correlations were found between the physicochemical and technological parameters of the eggs regardless of the lot (0.81≤ r ≤ 0.97; P <0.001). In conclusion, the breeding of local guinea fowl with herbaceous outdoor access improves the guinea fowl egg quality.