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

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Summary

Introduction

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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