Meat quality in suckling lambs: effect of pre-slaughter handling

Thirty-three suckling lambs of the Manchega breed were used to compare the effects of pre-slaughter handling (PSH) on initial meat quality and at 7 days post-mortem. Lambs were distributed into three groups: electrically stunned (ESL; n = 15), stunned using CO2 (GSL; n = 10) and slaughtered without previous stunning (USL; n = 8). Meat quality was evaluated by examining pH, colour (L*, a*, b* values), water holding capacity (WHC), cooking loss (CL), shear force (SF) and drip loss (DL). At 24 h post-mortem, the highest pH corresponded to the USL group (P < 0.05) whereas the lowest pH decline (pH0-pH24) corresponded to the GSL group (P < 0.05). Differences in pH among groups disappeared after 7 days post-mortem. In general, PSH did not affect values of WHC, CL and colour parameters. After 7 days post-mortem, there were significant differences between groups in DL, this being lowest (P < 0.05) in stunned animals. GSL resulted in more tender meat (lower SF value) than ESL and USL (P < 0.05). Moreover, there was no blood splash in any of the carcasses of the GSL group.