Ocorrência e caracterização de carne pse em suínos na região da Grande Dourados-MS

Abstract

The meat pork pale, soft and exudative (PSE) is multifactorial in origin and may be influenced by factors such as genotype, sex and pre-slaughter handling. The immunocastration emerged as an alternative to conventional methods of castration, but little is known about the behavior of these animals, their susceptibility to stress and its effects on meat quality. Thus, the study aimed to evaluate the effect of pre-slaughter handling and sex on the incidence of PSE meat in commercial slaughterhouse. There were three visits to a commercial slaughterhouse in the city of Dourados (MS), in which was measured the pH of carcasses (n = 2128) at 45 minutes after slaughter of lots consisting exclusively of females, males castrated surgically, males immunologically castrated and mixed lots (females and castrated surgically), underwent a resting time and time between the shipment and slaughter ranged from 2 to 16 hours. Carcasses with pH45 ≤ 5.8 were classified as PSE and those with pH45> 5.8 as normal. Depending on the number of animals evaluated in each category estimated the frequency of PSE.The overall incidence of PSE meat was 10.06%, higher in lots of animals immunocastrated (13.54%) compared to lots of females (8.59%) or castrated males (8.49%). Resting time of less than 6 hours and up to 14 hours increased the incidence of PSE meat. Although recommended to reduce the stress caused by surgical castration, immunocastration can cause a higher incidence of PSE meat in slaughterhouses. Resting time between 6 and 8 hours minimized the occurrence of PSE meat.