Genetic parameters of�meat technological quality traits in�a�grand-parental commercial line of�turkey

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Genetic parameters for meat quality traits and their relationships with body weight and breast development were estimated for a total of 420 male turkeys using REML. The birds were slaughtered in a commercial plant and the traits measured included pH at 20 min (pH 20 ) and 24 h post-mortem (pHu) and colour of the breast and thigh meat. The heritabilities of the rate and the extent of the pH fall in the breast muscle were estimated at h 2 = 0.21 ± 0.04 and h 2 = 0.16 ± 0.04, respectively. Heritabilities ranging from 0.10 to 0.32 were obtained for the colour indicators in the breast muscle. A marked negative genetic correlation ( r g = -0.80 ± 0.10) was found between pH 20 and lightness ( L *) of breast meat, both traits corresponding to PSE indicators. The pH 20 in the thigh muscle had a moderate heritability ( h 2 = 0.20 ± 0.07) and was partially genetically related to pH 20 in the breast muscle ( r g = 0.45 ± 0.17). Body weight and breast yield were positively correlated with both initial and ultimate pH and negatively with the lightness of breast meat.