Effects Of Welfare Slaughtering On Pigeon Meat Quality

Welfare slaughter is an inevitable trend with the development of the livestock slaughter.Welfare slaughter(pacifying and stunning before slaughtering)can effectively reduce the stress response which in animals slaughtering,thus to improve the quality of the livestock and poultry muscles.Nowadays,the pigeon market demand is increasing and pigeon industry has good prospects,however,reports about the welfare slaughtering in the pigeon slaughtering were rare.This paper investigate the effects of fasting,quieting,ventilation and spraying before slaughtering and different stun voltage on stress reaction and meat quality of pigeon.The aim of the present was to build a set of suitable scheme for the welfare slaughtering of pigeon.The main research results are as follows.1)Effects of fasting and quieting on stress reaction and meat quality of pigeon.The experimental results showed that,the pigeon meat p H value was higher as single fasting 4hour before slaughtering,while the brightness value was significantly lower than other group(P<0.05),and the blood indexes of adrenocorticotropic hormone(ACTH)and hormone corticosterone(CORT)concentration were both in a relative low levels.When quieting 1 hour before slaughtering,the pigeon meat p H value is higher,and the pigeon breast L*_24hand cooking loss decreased significantly(P<0.05).The cooking loss of pigeon breast meat for fasting 4 hour and quieting 1.0 hour group significantly reduced(P<0.05),and the CORT and ACTH concentration were both in low levels.Fasting and quiet combination treatment can alleviate the stress reaction for pigeon.2)Effects of ventilation and spraying on stress reaction and meat quality of pigeon.The experimental results showed that,the blood index(CORT,ACTH,CK and LDH)of single ventilation 10 min group decreased significantly(P<0.05).Single spray 10 min treatment group p H value and water retention increased significantly(P<0.05),and the L*and blood indexes of spray processing group has a tendency to significantly decline(P<0.05).With the combination of spray and ventilation processing,the blood index(ACTH,CORT and CK activity)increased along with the extension of time,resulting in the exacerbation of the stress response.Therefore,the combination treatment of spraying and ventilation was not recommended in the application of welfare slaughter of pigeon.3)Effects of different stun voltage on stress reaction and meat quality of pigeon were investigated.The experimental results showed that,with the increase of stun voltage,p H value of muscle had a tendency to rise,L*decreased and a*increased.Muscle drip loss and cooking loss of stun group were in a lower level at 70 V.R value of Electric shock treatment group had a tendency to decline.With the increased of stun voltage,the shear stress significantly reduced(P<0.05).Blood indexes of CK and LDH activity werealso significantly decreased(P<0.05).In conclusion,the optimized scheme of fasting and test time was that fasting 4 hour and rest 1 hour.The combination treatment of spraying and ventilation was not recommended in the application of welfare slaughter of pigeon.Single ventilation treatment for 10 min and single spraying treatment for 10 min were recommended.The advisable stun voltage was 70 V.