GLYCOLYTIC METABOLITES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION AT DEATH IN THE WHITE AND RED MUSCLE OF COD FOLLOWING VARIOUS DEGREES OF ANTEMORTEM MUSCULAR ACTIVITY

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Abstract
Muscular activity just before death critically affected the levels of glycolytic metabolites in the skeletal muscle of feeding, aquarium-held cod. Relaxed cod could be obtained by slow anesthetization without visible excitation; these contained very little lactate in the white muscle (7–28 mg/100 g), and exhibited high, uniformly distributed levels of high-energy phosphate compounds (about 17 μmoles acid-labile P/g plus equal or higher amounts of creatine phosphate). A trend to lower glycogen levels in the anterior portion of the fillet was indicated. Unexercised fish caught and killed with negligible struggling appeared to have undergone some antemortem activity. Compared with relaxed cod, they showed higher lactate levels (about 100 mg/100 g), much lower levels of creatine phosphate and other high-energy phosphate compounds, together with some ammonia. Again, glycogen was lower in the anterior than in the posterior portion. Exhaustion uniformly depleted energy reserves to low levels in the white muscle; in the red muscle, however, high glycogen levels were maintained, although the content of other glycolytic metabolites indicated partial activation of the glycolytic processes during the antemortem struggle. In all fish examined, levels of inorganic and total acid-soluble phosphorus were lower in the red than in the white muscle.

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