The Effect of Preslaughter Dietary Electrolyte Treatment on Carcass Yield and Turkey Meat Quality Characteristics

Abstract

One hundred and twenty hen turkeys at 21 weeks of age were equally randomized into the following four electrolyte treatments given 3 days prior to slaughter: 1) control group; 2) electrolyte at .05%; 3) .10%; and 4) .15% in drinking water. The birds were processed, chilled in an unagitated ice slush for 24 hr, packaged, and frozen at −20 C until analysis. Carcass yield, proximate composition in the breast muscle, mineral levels in the breast muscle, and various carcass characteristics were measured.Results indicated that electrolyte administration up to .10% via drinking water seemed to improve weight gain and percent water picked up, but this was not significant. However, this water gain was subsequently lost during thawing. Electrolyte levels did not significantly affect the postmortem meat quality. A level of .15% was found to be detrimental to feed intake and growth. No differences were observed in the proximate and mineral composition of the muscle tissue under different levels of electrolyte treatment.