Effects of cyclic heat stress on the phenotypic response, meat quality and muscle glycolysis of breasts and thighs of yellow-feather broilers

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of cyclic heat stress on phenotypic response, meat quality and muscle glycolysis of broiler. One hundred and eighty 35-day-old male Xueshan broilers with similar BW were randomly selected and exposed to either thermal neutral (TN; 23 °C, 55–60% RH, n = 6) or heat stress conditions (CHS; cyclic temperatures of 35 °C from 10:00 to 18:00, 32 °C from 18:00 to 20:00, 28 °C from 20:00 to 08:00, and 32 °C from 08:00 to 10:00 at 40–45% RH, n = 6) for 7 days. Relative to broilers under thermoneutral conditions, broilers subjected to cyclic heat stress had an overall increase in rectal temperature and respiration rate (p