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Effect of Stress Susceptibility or Stunning Method on Catecholamine Levels in Swine

Meat Science Research Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705

Abstract

In experiment I, selected tissues and plasma were collected at slaughter from stress susceptible (SS) and control pigs to examine the effect of stress susceptibility in swine on catecholamine levels (epinephrine and norepinephrine). The levels in the adrenal, heart (left ventricle), liver and skeletal muscle (longissimus) tissues and in the plasma were not significantly different between SS and control swine. The level of epinephrine in skeletal muscle was not detectable in either SS or control swine (<2.8 ng/g).

Experiment II, was designed to examine the degree of stress exerted on normal swine by various stunning methods as reflected in plasma catecholamine levels, prior to and after stunning. Shooting swine with a .22 caliber rifle (which simulated captive bolt stunning) was the most severe stress, as indicated by excessively high epinephrine (102.2 ng/ml) and norepinephrine (310 ng/ml) levels after stunning. Shackling without stunning was the least severe (epinephrine = 1.6 ng/ml) and norepinephrine = 101 ng/ml). Even though epinephrine values varied from 1 to 100 ng/ml over treatments, muscle color 3 hr postmortem did not differ. These results indicate that under normal conditions, circulating plasma catecholamines are not an important rate limiting factor in the initiation of the abnormally rapid rate of glycogenolysis that is associated with PSE muscle.

¹ Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames 50010

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