Animal Physiology and Meat Quality

Effect of the duration of commercial journeys between rearing farms and growing–finishing farms on the physiological stress response of weaned piglets

“…It is known that halothane gene carrier pigs are more susceptible to stress (Cassens et al, 1975), and different studies have found higher mortalities during transport and lairage in Nn individuals with respect to NN individuals (Murray and Johnson, 1998;Fàbrega et al, 2001). The tendencies to higher WBC and neutrophil counts (Table 4) suggest a higher response to the stress of transport in Nn than in NN piglets, agreeing with Pérez et al (2002) and Averós et al (2007) using slaughter pigs, although no clear results exist on this aspect in studies conducted with piglets (Villé et al, 1993;Geers et al, 1994).…”

Consumer responses to pork loin chops with different degrees of muscle quality in two western Canadian cities

“…Such aberrations have been demonstrated in numerous reports to arise from preslaughter stress (e.g. Cassens et al 1975). Depending upon its duration and the stress susceptibility of the animal, stress during the period immediately prior to slaughter produces one or the other of two aberrations in meat quality.…”

“…1975). Stress of short duration immediately prior to slaughter accelerates postmortem glycolysis and results ,n OrU PSE (watery) muscle (Cassens et al 1975). Both of these aberrations in meat quality are thought to reduce the acceptability of the product to the consumer (Topel et al 1976;Wachholz et al 1978;Zuidam et al 1981;Smith and Lesser 1982; Jeremiah 1984Jeremiah , 1985Jeremiah , 1986Jeremiah et al 1990).…”

Comparison of muscle fibre characteristics and production traits among offspring from Meishan dams mated to different sires

“…Moreover, the total number and size of muscle fibres also affects meat quality. Low muscle fibre numbers correlate to fibres that show larger hypertrophy, which may relate to stress susceptibility and poor meat quality in pig breeds (Cassens et al, 1975;Fiedler, 1993;Lengerken et al, 1997;Fiedler et al, 1999). Although notable correlations were not observed between total numbers of fibres and meat quality, the DM and YM crossbreds showed superior abilities for lean meat production and showed the lowest incidence of poor meat quality in this study.…”