Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of photoperiod on meat quality, oxidative stability, and metabolites of broiler fillet (M. Pectoralis major) muscles. A total of 432 broilers was split among 4 photoperiod treatments [hours light(L):dark(D)]: 20L:4D, 18L:6D, 16L:8D, and 12L:12D. At 42 days, a total of 48 broilers (12 broilers/treatment) was randomly selected and harvested. At 1 day postmortem, fillet muscles were dissected and displayed for 7 days. No considerable impacts of photoperiods on general carcass and meat quality attributes, such as carcass weight, yield, pH, water-holding capacity, and shear force, were found (p > 0.05). However, color and oxidative stability were influenced by the photoperiod, where muscles from 20L:4D appeared lighter and more discolored, coupled with higher lipid oxidation (p < 0.05) and protein denaturation (p = 0.058) compared to 12L:12D. The UPLC–MS metabolomics identified that 20 metabolites were different between the 20L:4D and 12L:12D groups, and 15 were tentatively identified. In general, lower aromatic amino acids/dipeptides, and higher oxidized glutathione and guanine/methylated guanosine were observed in 20L:4D. These results suggest that a photoperiod would result in no considerable impact on initial meat quality, but extended photoperiods might negatively impact oxidative stability through an alteration of the muscle metabolites.
Highlights
Broiler chicken production plays a key role in supplying consumers with high quality protein, as evidenced by the steady increase in US broiler chicken production from 50.4 billion pounds in 2008 [1]to 56.8 billion pounds in 2018 [2]
To lose more weight, as shown by the greater cooler shrink percentage compared to other shorter photoperiod treatments (p = 0.070)
Color and oxidative stability were influenced by the current photoperiod treatments and aerobic display storage
Summary
Broiler chicken production plays a key role in supplying consumers with high quality protein, as evidenced by the steady increase in US broiler chicken production from 50.4 billion pounds in 2008 [1]to 56.8 billion pounds in 2018 [2]. The increased breast meat yield commonly observed in long photoperiod regimes has often been shown to be inversely related to the yield of the thigh and drum [10,11,13], contributing to an increased frequency of leg abnormalities with impaired walking ability [9,14,15]. These detriments to skeletal health associated with long photoperiods might associate with the disruption of the normal diurnal rhythm, which plays a critical role in regulating bone modeling/remodeling [16]
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