Impacts of heat stress on meat quality and strategies for amelioration: a review

During the summer, high ambient temperature and humidity cause economic loss to the global livestock industry via reduced livestock productivity and increased mortality. The problem of heat stress (HS) is likely to be exacerbated by global warming and climate change. Recent research has shown that HS not only leads to physiological and metabolic perturbations in live animals but can also affect carcass and meat quality characteristics plausibly by altering the rate and extent of postmortem muscle glycolysis and resultant pH. However, these impacts of HS are not consistent across species. Higher incidence of pale soft and exudative (PSE) meat has been reported in poultry. On the contrary, higher incidence of high ultimate pH and dark firm and dry (DFD) meat or no impacts of HS have been reported in sheep and cattle. With the limited data on HS impacts on meat quality of ruminants, it is difficult to explain the exact mechanisms driving these variable impacts. However, it is hypothesized that the severity and duration of HS may lead to variable impacts due to lack of opportunity to adapdate to acute heat exposure. Longer HS exposure may allow ruminants to adapdate to heat and may not record any negative impacts on meat quality. This paper reviews the recent research on impacts of HS on meat quality characteristics and identify the key areas of further research required to better understand these negative impacts to develop strategies for amelioration. In addition, some mitigation strategies of HS have also been discussed which include both managemental and nutritional interventions.