TABLE 3.

Overview of heat stress effects on skeletal muscle protein metabolism of chickens.

Class	Heat stress effect	Pros	Cons	References a
Protein metabolism	↓ protein synthesis and ↑ protein breakdown in skeletal muscles	Supply of glucogenic precursors to the liver	↓ lean tissue yield (especially breast yield)	Howlider and Rose (1989) , Ain Baziz et al. (1996) , Geraert et al. (1996a) , Temim et al. (2000) , Boussaid-Om Ezzine et al. (2010) , Rhoads et al. (2013), Zuo et al. (2015) , Lu et al. (2018) , Ma et al. (2021) , Qaid and Al-Garadi (2021) , Zampiga et al. (2021)

Upward arrow (↑), increase; downward arrow (↓), decrease; rightward arrow (→), consequence/degeneration.

^aInclude studies on non-avian species that have exhibited comparable heat stress effects and responses to those observed in chickens. Studies with the focus on chickens or poultry are highlighted in bold.