Sodium butyrate, oxidative stress, and meat quality

A recent study (Zhang et al. 2011) investigated the effects of dietary microencapsulated sodium butyrate (SB) and acute pre-slaughter stress on BW, carcass characteristics, muscle antioxidant status, and meat quality of broiler chickens. The birds were fed a control diet (without SB) or a diet with 400 g /MT of SB. At 42 d, half of the birds from each treatment were given 1 single subcutaneous injection of 4 mg/kg of BW of corticosterone (CORT) in corn oil to mimic acute stress, whereas the other half were injected with the same amount of corn oil (sham control). Three hours later, BW loss was determined and breast meat samples were collected. Results indicated that BW loss of the CORT-challenged groups was higher than for the sham control group (P