Influence of transport conditions and pre‐slaughter water shower spray during summer on protein characteristics and water distribution of broiler breast meat

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of pre-slaughter transport during summer and subsequent water shower spray on broiler meat quality and protein characteristics. Arbor Acres broiler chickens (n = 126, 42 days old, mixed sex, 2.5-3 kg) were randomly categorized into three treatments: (i) control group without transport (C); (ii) 30 min transport (T); and (iii) 30 min transport followed by 10 min water shower spray and 20 min lairage (T/W). Each treatment consisted of six replicates with seven birds each. Ambient temperature was 32-35°C during transportation. Results indicated that transport during high ambient temperature denatured myosin and sarcoplasmic proteins, led to decreased protein solubility and resulted in glycogen phosphorylase precipitated to the myofibrillar fraction. Furthermore, meat quality in the transport group showed a pale, soft and exudative (PSE)-like syndrome. Water shower spray during lairage after transport reduced the degree of protein denaturation and lessened the deterioration of meat quality.

Stress Effects on Meat Quality: A Mechanistic Perspective

“…Sandercock, Hunter, Nute, Mitchell, and Hocking (2001) demonstrated that AHS caused damage to skeletal muscle membrane integrity, which further led to undesirable meat characteristics. Our previous studies also indicated that the preslaughter transport of broilers under AHS increased the incidence of PSE-like meat (Jiang, Wang, Xing, Han, & Xu, 2016;Xing & Li, 2016). Overall, both CHS and AHS seriously affected the poultry production by attenuating growth performance and meat yield.…”

The effect of water shower spray on stress physiology and mortality in broiler chickens subjected to road transportation under the hot and humid tropical condition

“…In order to maintain a comfortable environment for birds in transit, it is a common practice in the commercial boiler operation in Malaysia to shower chickens with water spray just before road transportation. Earlier work showed that water shower spraying of heat-stressed broilers during preslaughter handling improved meat quality and reduced pale soft exudative syndrome (Xing et al 2016). There is, however, a dearth of information on the effect of water shower spray on the physiological stress response in transported broilers under hot and humid tropical conditions.…”

Chicken breast quality – normal, pale, soft and exudative (PSE) and woody – influences the functional properties of meat batters

“…Seasonal factors affect the incidence of PSE-like meat, as incidence of PSE-like meat in China was up to 23.39% in the summer with similarly high incidences in Brazil and Canada (Barbut, 1997;Zhu et al, 2012;Carvalho et al, 2014). The occurrence of PSE-like meat was influenced by other factors, including stress during transport and stressors such as high temperature postmortem (Zhu et al, 2011;Jiang et al, 2016;Xing et al, 2016). Because of its high incidence and its undesirable processing characteristics, PSE-like meat has caused a huge economic loss to the poultry industry.…”