Effects of transportation during the hot season and low voltage electrical stimulation on histochemical and meat quality characteristics of sheep longissimus muscle

The effect of dietary supplementation with β-1,3/1,6-D-glucan on stress parameters and meat quality in lambs

“…The observed response of the HPA axis confirms that pre-slaughter handling is stressful. Cortisol is a reliable indicator of stress in animals (Ali et al, 2006;Kadim et al, 2009). In the present experiment, during successive stages of pre-slaughter handling, cortisol concentrations were increased in both groups and were the highest after transport to the slaughterhouse.…”

“…Kadim et al (2006) observed that a 2-hour transport significantly influenced ultimate pH values in goats. In another study, Kadim et al (2009) found higher pH u values in lambs slaughtered after 3 h of transport in comparison with animals that were not transported. Apple et al (2005) demonstrated that immobilization stress in sheep significantly increased the pH u values of meat.…”

“…Similar results were reported by Bond et al (2004) who found significantly higher areas of expressed juice and ultimate pH in the meat of stressed lambs. Kadim et al (2009) demonstrated that the meat of 12-month-old lambs was characterized by a significantly smaller area of expressed juice after 3 h of transport in comparison with animals that were not transported. In contrast, stress did not influence the water-holding capacity of goat meat in the study of Kannan et al (2003).…”

“…In lambs the stress associated with pre-slaughter handling (including weaning, pre-slaughter starvation and pre-slaughter rest in the lairage), conditions and duration of transport, as well as season has been studied extensively (Sowińska et al, 2001;Fisher et al, 2005;Ali et al, 2006;Kadim et al, 2006Kadim et al, , 2009Bórnez et al, 2009;Tadich et al, 2009;Miranda-de la Lama et al, 2010;Ekiz et al, 2012a,b). Increased blood cortisol levels in lambs after 75 min (Ekiz et al, 2012a), 2 h (Ali et al, 2006) and 48 h of transport (Tadich et al, 2009) indicate that transport is the most significant stressor during pre-slaughter handling.…”

“…The influence of pre-slaughter stress has been studied extensively for reasons of production profitability and animal welfare. Preslaughter stressors disrupt metabolic processes, which could have an adverse influence on meat quality (Apple et al, 1995;Kadim et al, 2009;Ekiz et al, 2012a).…”