R. Lahucky et al., EFFECT OF PRESLAUGHTER HANDLING ON MUSCLE GLYCOGEN LEVEL AND SELECTEDMEAT QUALITY TRAITS IN BEEF, Meat science, 50(3), 1998, pp. 389-393
The ante-mortem and post-mortem glycogen levels in bull muscle were st
udied to determine their influence on the ultimate pH, cooking loss an
d shear force. Forty-three bulls (13 Holstein, 12 crosses Holstein x B
elgium blue, 9 Slovak Pied and 9 crosses Slovak Pinzgauer x Piemontese
) were tied, housed and divided in control (A, n = 30) and stressed (B
, n = 13) groups before slaughter. At the institute abattoir, the grou
p B animals were mixed and kept overnight. In group A, bulls were slau
ghtered immediately after arrival at the abattoir. The following value
s of muscle were determined: (1) glycogen ante mortem from m. semitend
inosus (ST) (biopsy technique, Biotech Nitra), (2) glycogen post morte
m (1 hr, 3 hr, 48 hr) from longissimus dorsi muscle (LD), (3) ultimate
pH, cooking loss and shear force 48 h post mortem. The results show t
hat the glycogen concentrations ante mortem (ST) and 1 hr post mortem
(LD) from unstressed animals were similar (p > 0.05). The ante-mortem
and post-mortem (1 hr, 3 hr) muscle glycogen concentration were deplet
ed (p < 0.01) in all stressed bulls. Differences between stressed and
unstressed animals (p < 0.01) were found in ultimate pH, cooking loss
and in shear force (p < 0.05). Significant correlations (p < 0.01) bet
ween ante-mortem (ST) and post-mortem (LD, 1 hr, 3 hr) muscle glycogen
and ultimate pH and cooking loss supported the possibility of using a
n efficient biopsy technique in combination with a simple method of gl
ycogen estimation (iodide method) to predict metabolic exhaustion (gly
cogen depletion) and/or dark cutting condition of bulls. (C) 1998 Else
vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.