Pale, soft, and exudative meat in turkeys treated with succinylcholine

Rapid post-mortem metabolism concomitant with the early onset of rigor mortis can lead to the development of pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) meat. However, a reliable, nonlethal method for induction of this syndrome for the ante-mortem identification of abnormal turkeys has not been identified. The present study was conducted to evaluate the potential use of succinylcholine for inducing PSE meat in susceptible turkeys. Four-week-old Nicholas toms were either uninjected (controls) (n = 44) or injected with succinylcholine and butorphanol (n = 76) in combination. Post-mortem tissue samples were taken from the Pectoralis at 15 min, 2 h, and 4 h, for pH and R-value (the ratio of inosine to adenosine) determination. L*values were evaluated at 4 and 24 h post-mortem and drip loss and cook loss were determined. Means for pH, R-value, L*value, drip loss, and cook loss did not differ due to injection treatment. When Pectoralis were grouped as normal (L* < 53) or pale (L* > 53), pale fillets had lower pH and higher R-values than normal birds by 15 min post-mortem. Decreased water-holding properties were evident as drip loss and cook loss were increased in the pale group. The observed frequency of pale birds was 21.6% in the population, and the occurrence of pale birds was highest in the butorphanol-treated group. These findings suggest that although butorphanol did not affect overall treatment means for the test parameters, more turkeys in the treated group exhibited PSE meat.