1United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0056, 2Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0056, Japan
Hypertonic saline (HS) was injected to living eels before killing and the effect of the HS injection on the post-mortem was investigated. The adequate time for killing the eel was estimated to be in the range within 2 and 3 hours after the injection of HS based on the presence of glucose and the amount of insulin in the blood. The reduction of ATP (adenosine triphosphatase) was controlled for 20 hours after killing, accompanying the reduction of glycogen. Thus, the effect of delaying rigor-mortis was suggested to occur due to the injection of HS. However, there was no significant difference between both test sections due to the rate of ATP reduction on the achievement time to full rigor-mortis. Consequently, the reduction of ATP would have an effect on the delay of rigor-mortis due to the injection of HS.