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

• Published in: International journal of food science & technology 2020-03, Vol.55 (3), p.953-960
• Main Authors: Xu, Lei, Wang, Jing, Yue, Hong‐yuan, Farnell, Morgan B., Yang, Hai‐ming, Wang, Zhi‐yue, Qi, Guang‐hai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antioxidant enzyme; Antioxidants; Birds; chicken; electrical stunning; Enzymatic activity; Enzyme activity; Enzymes; Gene expression; Glutathione; Kinases; lipid oxidation; Lipids; low current/high frequency; Malondialdehyde; MAP kinase; MAPK/Nrf2 signalling pathway; meat quality; Muscles; NRF2 protein; Protein kinase; Proteins; Signal transduction; Signaling; Slaughter; Thigh
• ISSN: 0950-5423; 1365-2621
• DOI: 10.1111/ijfs.14402

Summary This 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. Low‐current/high‐frequency electrical stunning (LHES) activated MAPK/Nrf2 antioxidant pathway in a transcriptional level and enzymatic level, whereas, had no superiority over high‐current/low‐frequency electrical stunning (HLES) in lipid oxidative stability of thigh muscle in broilers during refrigeration from 0 to 9 days postmortem at 4°C.