. 2019 Dec 26;99(3):1454–1461. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2019.11.001

Table 3.

Effect of heat stress and glutamine on meat quality of the thigh muscle in broilers.

Item	Treatments¹					SEM	P-value
Item	CON	HS	HS-0.5% Gln	HS-1.0% Gln	HS-1.5% Gln	SEM	P-value
pH	6.19^a	5.95^b	6.02^b	6.05^b	6.15^a	0.021	<0.001
L*	48.28^a	50.21^b	49.10^a,b	47.95^a	48.38^a	0.240	0.013
a*	8.28^a	6.81^b	7.06^b	8.03^a	7.94^a	0.121	<0.001
b*	8.06	7.59	7.71	7.85	8.02	0.161	0.884
DL (%)	4.60	5.10	4.88	4.73	4.66	0.073	0.204
CL (%)	37.27^a	41.57^d	41.18^c,d	40.25^c	39.01^b	0.326	<0.001
WLR (%)	26.34^a	31.59^c	29.66^b,c	28.34^a,b	29.19^b,c	0.490	0.007

^a–dValues without common superscripts in the same row differ significantly (P < 0.05); Duncan's test was used to compare statistical differences among the CON, HS, HS-0.5% Gln, HS-1.0% Gln, and HS-1.5% Gln groups.

Abbreviations: a*, redness; b*, yellowness; CL, cooking loss; CON, control; DL, drip loss; HS, heat stress; L*, luminance; WLR, water loss rate.

CON = broilers were kept in the normal-temperature environment and fed a basal diet; HS = broilers were kept in the circular heat stress environment and fed a basal diet; HS-0.5% Gln, HS-1.0% Gln, and HS-1.5% Gln = broilers were kept in the circular heat stress environment and fed basal diets supplemented with 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% Gln.