Genetic Parameters of White Striping and Meat Quality Traits Indicative of Pale, Soft, Exudative Meat in Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo)

Abstract

Due to the increasing prevalence of growth-related myopathies and abnormalities in turkey meat, the ability to include meat quality traits in poultry breeding strategies is an issue of key importance. In the present study, genetic parameters for meat quality traits and their correlations with body weight and meat yield were estimated using a population of purebred male turkeys. Information on live body, breast, thigh, and drum weights, breast meat yield, feed conversion ratio, breast lightness (L*), redness (a*), and yellowness (b*), ultimate pH, and white striping (WS) severity score were collected on 11,986 toms from three purebred genetic lines. Heritability and genetic and partial phenotypic correlations were estimated for each trait using an animal model with genetic line, hatch week-year, and age at slaughter included as fixed effects. Heritability of ultimate pH was estimated to be 0.34 ± 0.05 and a range of 0.20 ± 0.02 to 0.23 ± 0.02 for breast meat colour (L*, a*, and b*). White striping was also estimated to be moderately heritable at 0.15 ± 0.02. Unfavorable genetic correlations were observed between body weight and meat quality traits as well as white striping, indicating that selection for increased body weight and meat yield may decrease pH and increase the incidence of pale meat with more severe white striping. The results of this analysis provide insight into the effect of current selection strategies on meat quality and emphasize the need to include meat quality traits into future selection indexes for turkeys.

Genetic parameters of feather corticosterone and fault bars and correlations with production traits in turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo)

“…Heritability estimates for the feather traits are presented in Table 1 . Heritability estimates for the studied growth and efficiency, carcass, and meat quality traits can be found in Vanderhout et al 41 . The reported heritability estimates in this study are from the univariate models for each trait.…”

“…Consequently, meat pH would not decrease as much 51 explaining the positive correlation between FCORT and ultimate pH. This relationship could be a desirable consequence of selection for higher FCORT as it may help reduce the prevalence quality defects such as pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) meat 41,[53][54][55] which is associated with low meat pH. The correlation between FCORT and ultimate pH may also be influenced by the negative relationship between FCORT and breast yield where larger breast yield is associated with decreased pH and water-holding capacity.…”

“…Carcass component weights were recorded using a scale at 24 h post-mortem. A proportion of carcasses were randomly selected and cut up into the major components as part of another project 41 . For these select carcasses, fillets ( Pectoralis major ), tenders ( Pectoralis minor ), thighs (bone-in, skin on), and drums (bone-in, skin on) were individually weighed, however a total breast meat weight (Breast Total ) was estimated by adding the fillet and tender weight together.…”

Thigh muscle metabolic response is linked to feed efficiency and meat characteristics in slow-growing chicken

“…The elevation of glycolysis and pyruvate metabolism result in the accumulation of lactic acid, which consequently reduces the pH value of the postmortem meat ( Vanderhout et al, 2022 ). As the process of protein folding is critical to the proper functioning of the muscle protein, any disruptions in this process can lead to misfolded structures that may impact the quality of meat, for example, a rapid and extensive pH decline increases the denatured muscle proteins and impairs the functionality of meat ( Stajkovic et al, 2019 ).…”

Advances in application of ultrasound in meat tenderization: A review

“…Higher pH is beneficial for liquid retention (Huff- Lonergan and Lonergan, 2005). Several authors have reported an increase in the pH of pale, soft, exudative (PSE) poultry meat (Vanderhout et al, 2022) and uncured dry-fermented beef (Wójciak et al, 2019) after ultrasound treatment. Ultrasound cavitation may lead to the release of proteolytic enzymes and deaminase, increasing the availability of amino acids and basic amines (Huang et al, 2017) and reducing acidic protein groups (Amiri et al, 2018).…”