TABLE 3.

Effects of heat stress on meat quality in indigenous broilers.

Items	NT Group	HS Group	p-Value
Breast muscle
Cooking loss, %	10.56 ± 1.07	13.79 ± 3.28	0.376
Drip loss, %
1 day	0.90 ± 0.18	3.74 ± 0.43	<0.001
2 days	1.96 ± 0.30	4.81 ± 0.47	<0.001
3 days	2.98 ± 0.31	5.53 ± 0.51	0.003
pH
45min	6.84 ± 0.01	6.68 ± 0.06	0.035
24h	6.62 ± 0.09	6.49 ± 0.15	0.475
Thigh muscle
Cooking loss, %	20.04 ± 4.80	24.61 ± 3.65	0.471
Drip loss, %
1 day	0.59 ± 0.17	2.17 ± 0.75	0.076
2 days	1.44 ± 0.19	2.33 ± 0.86	0.342
3 days	1.99 ± 0.23	2.93 ± 0.90	0.344
pH
45min	6.97 ± 0.05	6.69 ± 0.09	0.025
24h	6.90 ± 0.08	6.84 ± 0.07	0.572

NT, normal treatment group, the broilers reared at 21.3 ± 1.2 °C throughout the experimental period; HS, the broilers reared at 32.5 ± 1.4 °C for 8 h/day (9:00 a.m. to 17:00 p.m.). There were 5 selected broilers per group for the determination of meat quality.