59 th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, 18-23 rd August 2013, Izmir, Turkey THE CHARACTERIZATION AND INCIDENCE OF TRANSPORTATION AND SEX ON TURKEY MEAT QUALITY H. BOUKHRIS 1 , C. DAMERGI 1 , E. JLASSI 2 , A. SAMET 3 and T.NAJAR 1 1 INA-Tunisia, laboratory analysis of food quality, Tunis-TUNISIA 2 Science and technology of helth, Tunis-TUNISIA 3 El Mazraa industry, Fondek Jedid -TUNISIA Abstract – Many ante-mortem factors such as environmental temperatures, relative humidity, pre-slaughter handling practices, and transportation affected meat quality. However, the effect of transportation on meat quality of turkeys has not been extensively studied. This study aims to compare the effect that different transport duration and animal sex on the quality meat and frequency of occurrence of PSE meat. Five hundred forty seven turkeys from the HYBRID line were randomly chosen from within a flock, and slaughtered on a commercial processing line. This study showed that transportation of turkeys form 15min to 60 min prior to slaughter does not negatively affect the pH 20min meat. In addition, male turkeys seem to be more stressful than females. The breast muscles from fast glycolysis group had significantly a lower muscle pH at 20 min and lower red index and significantly higher L* values and yellow index (b*). Key Words – Turkey meat, transportation, sex, pH, PSE I. INTRODUCTION Recently, the turkey industry has been faced with the increasing problem on quality meat. Previous research has indicated that ante-mortem stress factors can affect meat quality in poultry. Two conditions known as pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) and dark, firm, and dry (DFD) meat can develop in meat as a result of short- and long- term stress, respectively (Hedrick et al., 1989; Lawrie, 1998). PSE is more associated with short- term stress. It has been suggested that short term pre-slaughter stress results in an acceleration of muscle metabolism that continues at a high rate when the animal is slaughtered. This acceleration leads to a fast decline in muscle pH early postmortem while carcass temperatures are still high, which results in protein denaturation. This denaturation of proteins can result in meat with pale color, poor water-holding capacity, and poor texture. Ante-mortem factors that cause stress to the animal can include environmental temperatures, pre-slaughter handling practices and transportation (Cassens et al., 1975; D’Souza et al., 1998). In addition, Cashman et al. (1989) reported that transportation increased fear levels (indicated by tonic immobility) in broilers and suggested that fear can contribute stress on the animal. Turkeys and broilers are often transported to processing plants for 30 min to 3 h prior to processing. The transportation process can be stressful to the birds, and it may, consequently, affect meat quality. Although there is much research on the effects of transportation on the physiology of poultry, there is limited information on the effects of transportation and animal sex on poultry meat quality. Because previous research has shown that transportation is a stressor to turkeys and broilers, future research is needed to evaluate various transportation times (<3 h) to determine the effects on meat quality. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of pre slaughter transportation and sex on the initial pH and frequency of different types of glycolysis. Then, this trial aims to characterize color meat of male and female turkeys from two types of glycolysis. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS Five hundred forty seven turkeys from the HYBRID line were randomly chosen from within a flock, and slaughtered on a commercial processing line. The animal materiel is showed on table 1. The male birds were 17 wk old and live weight was approximately 12 kg and the female birds