Creatine kinase and lactate dehidrogenase activities for stress animal identification and chicken PSE (pale, soft, exudative) Meatidentification and chicken PSE (pale, soft, exudative) Meat

Abstract

Porcine Stress Syndrome (PSS) is a syndrome that occurs in pigs. PSS animals are sensitive to the anesthetic halothane, have higher activities of Creatine Kinase (CK) and Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) and are predisposed to the development of PSE (Pale, Soft, Exudative) meat, compromising the meat quality. In chickens, little is known about the relationship between sensitivity to and halothane changes in the activities of these enzymes with the occurrence of PSE meat. The aim of this study was to evaluate the CK and LDH activities in sensitive and non-sensitive halothane chickens and for stress susceptibility identification and PSE meat development. Birds were exposed to halothane at a 3.0 % concentration in pure O2 for 5 min. Afterwords, they were classified into groups: sensitive to halothane (HAL +) (stiffening of the lower limbs) and Non-sensitive (HAL-) (no hardening). After 3 h and 48 h to the test, blood was collected from the wing vein gill, serum extracted and stored at –22 °C until analysis of CK and LDH. No differences were observed (p ? 0.05) in CK activity for HAL+ and HAL- groups. However, differences (p ? 0.05) were observed the LDH activity at 3 h and 48 h, and 44.2 % and 66.1 % higher for the group HAL +, respectively. The determination of lactate dehydrogenase activity indicates to be an alternative to identify animals susceptible to stress thus prone to produce PSE meat.