Heat Stress and an Immune Challenge Influence Turkey Meat Quality, but Conspecific-Directed Pecking Behavior Does Not

Abstract

Heat stress (HS), immune challenges (IC) and pecking behavior are some of the many stressors poultry can experience in commercial settings that may affect bird welfare and meat quality after harvest. The first objective was to determine if HS or IC turkeys displayed greater negative effects on meat quality, and the second objective was to determine if the frequency of non-aggressive pecking behaviors among the birds was related to meat quality. Ninety-two, commercial male, beak-trimmed turkeys were used with a total of 15 rooms and 4–7 birds per room. Each treatment was applied for 1 week prior to harvest: the Control (CON) group had no stressors added, the HS group ambient temperature was approximately 29 °C for 120 min, and the IC group involved inoculating birds with a live vaccine for hemorrhagic enteritis virus. Birds were recorded and scored to quantify pecking behavior. Once harvested, carcasses were evaluated for feather retention force, pH, color, proximate analysis, fatty acid composition, shear force, and drip loss. Stress treatment resulted in HS breasts having the lowest protein content, and IC breasts having the lowest CIE L* values and the greatest shear force values. Pecking behavior had no impact on any meat quality attributes.