Evaluation of pre‐slaughter low‐current/high‐frequency electrical stunning on lipid oxidative stability, antioxidant enzyme activity and gene expression of mitogen‐activated protein kinase/nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (MAPK/Nrf2) signalling pathway in thigh muscle of broilers

Abstract

SummaryThis study was aimed to evaluate the effects of pre‐slaughter low‐current/high‐frequency (LH) electrical stunning (ES) on lipid oxidative stability, antioxidant enzyme activity and gene expression of mitogen‐activated protein kinase/nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (MAPK/Nrf2) signalling pathway in thigh muscle of broilers. Eighteen birds were randomly allocated to the following three treatments with six replicates per treatment and one bird per replicate: without stunning (control); water‐bath ES with sinusoidal alternating LH (86 mA, 1000 Hz, LHES) or high current/low frequency (HL) (130 mA, 60 Hz, HLES). Stunning methods did not affect malondialdehyde level (d 0 ~ d 9) or antioxidant enzymes’ activity at d 0 ~ d 2. LHES enhanced glutathione S‐transferase activity at d 3 and gene expression of MAPKs and Nrf2 compared with HLES. In conclusion, LHES enhanced gene expression of MAPK/Nrf2 pathway, whereas had no superiority over HLES in lipid oxidative stability (4 °C, 9 days) of thigh muscle in broilers.