Reproducibility of a farmyard stress model used to evaluate predictive biomarkers for high pH in lamb

Abstract

We have reported on a simple farmyard stress model which was a useful way of causing high pH meat under controlled yet realistic conditions for further research. The study showed that moderate stress resulted in changes to several important meat quality markers [1]. Samples from this trial have been used for fingerprinting mass spectrometry to identify new potential predictive markers of high ultimate pH [2]. The current study was designed as follow up validation trial to confirm the reproducibility of this model and potential metabolic biomarkers. These muscles in the early post-mortem period were also analysed for four protein biomarkers identified by our international collaborators [3]. This data will contribute towards defining and designing much larger experiments run in commercial processing plants. The aim is to develop rapid screening systems to predict ultimate pH as meat is processed. In future, biomarkers of high pH in the meat could be also used for enhancing animal welfare and confirm the relationship between minimising pre-slaughter stress and improving the consistency of meat quality.