A study was conducted to determine the effects of journey duration (1 versus 3 h) and lairage time at abattoir (0 versus 5 h) on rabbit meat quality traits. Rabbits transported for 3 h produced meat with significantly higher pH values (P < 0.01), darker (lower L*values, P < 0.01) and less yellow (P < 0.05) color, as well as lower losses during cooking (P < 0.01), than those transported for 1 h. Moreover, animals laired for 5 h yielded meat with more (P < 0.05) yellow color, cooking losses (P < 0.05) and higher shear values (P < 0.01) than rabbits not laired before slaughtering. The nuclear magnetic resonance analysis revealed that these differences (P < 0.05) are mainly related to changes occurring in the distribution of myofibrillar (T) and extra-myofibrillar (T) water. In conclusion, this study indicated that journey time and lairage at abattoir may play an important role in determining rabbit meat quality traits. In many previous studies that considered the effect of journey and lairage on rabbit meat quality, animals were stress-induced by extreme conditions of journey and/or lairage that were unlikely to occur during commercial operations. The aim of this study is to establish whether meat quality characteristics are still influenced when journey and lairage times match current commercial production practices. Because processing-plant efficiency depends on product uniformity, it will be interesting to test the potential variability effect of rabbit preslaughter practices on meat quality properties.
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