Impact of pre-slaughter transport conditions on stress response, carcass traits, and meat quality in growing rabbits

In growing rabbits ( n  = 320; 84 d of age), an increase in the journey duration to the slaughterhouse from 1 h to 3 h under mild climatic conditions (10–13 °C; 75–90% relative humidity) affected several stress indicators in the plasma and muscle collected at slaughter (cortisol; corticosterone; lactate dehydrogenase, LDH; lactate; heat shock protein 70 kDa, HSP70; osmolality, and Na) (0.001 <  P <  .05), reduced muscle L*, b* ( P <  .01), and meat shear force ( P <  .05), and increased the dressing out percentage and muscle pH ( P <  .01). An increase in the lairage duration before slaughtering from 30 min to 3 h affected muscle cortisol and plasma creatinine kinase, LDH, lactate, and HSP70 (0.001 <  P <  .05), increased dressing out percentage and muscle pH ( P <  .05), but decreased meat shear force ( P <  .001). The interaction between journey and lairage duration was significant for several stress indicators and meat quality.