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Duration of transport and holding in lairage at constant postprandial delay to slaughter--effects on fatty liver and breast muscle quality in mule ducks.

The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of preslaughter transport (30 vs. 150 min) and holding of mule ducks in lairage in their transport crates (15 vs. 120 min) on the quality of the meat and fatty liver. A total of 120 birds were allocated in a 2 × 2 factorial design with a constant postprandial delay to slaughter (8 h), to avoid the confounding between the effects of the experimental treatments and those of fasting duration. Under such conditions, extending the transport or holding duration did not induce a loss in preslaughter live weight or liver weight. Similarly, breast muscle glycogen stores were not affected by the treatments, nor was the kinetics of postmortem pH decline affected. The mechanical resistance of raw meat obtained by the compression test significantly increased with holding duration. The gross chemical composition of the livers did not differ significantly among the preslaughter treatments. Residual blood in the liver, as indicated by heme pigment concentration, was enhanced with a longer transport, but this effect was more pronounced after the longest holding duration, as shown by a significant interaction. This, however, did not significantly affect the incidence of appearance defects or the commercial grading of the livers. The percentage of fat loss during the cooking of canned livers was significantly reduced when the transport duration was increased. This effect could not be explained on the basis of the current knowledge for determining the technological quality of fatty liver. The identification of biological markers of liver quality is currently underway in our laboratory. Further investigations studying the differential expression of these biological markers according to preslaughter conditions would provide a better understanding of the effect of transport duration on liver processing yield.