Abstract:

After rapid development over the past 20 years and more, the poultry industry in China has entered a transition
period. The traditional emphasis on the notion of poultry breeds and breeding have been replaced by the combination of
industry chain from factory farming, centralized slaughtering to marketing fresh. In contrast to the increasing maturation
of the large scale system of poultry breeding industry in China, the emphasis at the stage of deep processing has shifted
towards poultry meat quality with the purpose to satisfy consumer’s demands for high-quality fresh poultry and processing
enterprises’ demands for raw materials. However poultry meat quality is affected by multiple interacting factors including
genetics, feeding, husbandry, pre-slaughter handling, stunning/slaughter procedures, and chilling and storage conditions. The
influences of pre-slaughter and slaughtering factors on final meat quality may be greater than those of other factors. Many
problems may occur at the stages that potentially increase the rate of mortality, cause carcass downgrading and impair meat
quality. This paper is aimed at reviewing recent studies on the effects exerted by pre-slaughter and slaughtering factors on
final meat quality for providing some references for slaughter processing in our country.

Key words: poultry, quality, pre-slaughter, slaughtering factors