Carcase characteristics and meat quality assessments in goats subjected to slaughter without stunning and slaughter following different methods of electrical stunning

• Main Authors: Sabow, Azad Behnan, Adeyemi, Kazeem Dauda, Idrus, Zulkifli, Goh, Yong Meng, Ab Kadir, Mohd Zainal Abidin, Kaka, Ubedullah, Aghwan, Zeiad Amjad Abdulrazzak, Abubakar, Ahmed Abubakar, Sazili, Awis Qurni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2017
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/59158/1/Carcase%20characteristics%20and%20meat%20quality%20assessments%20in%20goats%20subjected%20to%20slaughter%20without%20stunning%20and%20slaughter%20following%20different%20methods%20of%20electrical%20stunning.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/59158/; http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1828051X.2017.1291287

The study examined meat quality and carcase haemorrhage in goats subjected to different methods of pre-slaughter electrical stunning or slaughtered without stunning. Thirty-two Boer crossbred bucks were randomly assigned to low-frequency head-only (LFHO; 1 A for 3 s at a frequency of 50 Hz), low-frequency head-to-back (LFHB: 1 A for 3 s at a frequency of 50 Hz) or high-frequency head-to-back (HFHB; 1 A for 3 s at a frequency of 850 Hz) pre-slaughter electrical stunning or slaughter without stunning (SWS). All the 32 animals were bled to drain excess blood from the carcase. The slaughter was performed by a licenced slaughter man by severing carotid artery, jugular vein, trachea and oesophagus. At 12 h post-mortem, LFHO, LFHB and HFHB had lower (p < .05) glycogen and higher lactate and glycolytic potential values than SWS. A faster (p < .05) rate of pH decline was found in LFHO, LFHB and HFHB compared to SWS. No physicochemical parameters except cooking loss differed between treatments. Cooking loss was higher (p < .05) in LFHO, LFHB and HFHB compared to SWS at 7 and 14 d post-mortem. Incidences of carcase haemorrhages in electrically stunned goats were higher than SWS. Nonetheless, HFHB had lower (p < .05) haemorrhages than LFHB and LFHO. Electrical stunning prior slaughter increased carcase haemorrhages and cooking loss but did not affect other meat quality traits in goats.