Comparison of Blood Loss and Meat Quality Characteristics in Korean Black Goat Subjected to Head-Only Electrical Stunning or without Stunning

Abstract

This study assessed the effects of non-stunning (NS) and head-only electrical stunning (HOES) slaughtering condition on meat quality traits of longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle from Korean black goat (KBG). Ten KBGs (18 months) were assigned into two groups and exposed to either NS or HOES treatments. Blood loss (BL) % was measured after exsanguination, and meat quality traits including muscle pH, meat color measurements (CIE L*, a*, b*, Chroma, and hue angle), water-holding capacity (WHC), Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), and sarcomere length were measured at 24 h postmortem. Results indicated that NS and HOES had no significant difference on BL %, the rate of pH decline, meat color properties, and WHC (p>0.05). It has only a small effect on WBSF and sarcomere length values, but the difference was marginal. These results suggested that meat quality of LL muscle from goat might not be affected by slaughter methods because neither NS nor HOES did result in poor quality of meat.