Quiz 5

Describe wooden breast and white striping Myopathies in poultry and their impact on meat quality.

As many people in the poultry industry have noticed there is a new and growing problem in the broiler aspect of the industry. Wooden or woody breast (myopathies) has become a very serious problem with meat quality. Wooden breast is when the breast muscle of broiler becomes very large a fibrous making the meat have a rubber texture and also very hard. The breast meat has such a poor quality that is essentially useless also causing massive economic losses to the industry. The most common reason to be causing the myopathies is the increased growth rate of the chickens. The industry has genetically altered the birds to grow as big as they can as fast as they can and we are starting to see the adverse effects. Histological reports of wooden breasts are similar to other diseases such as hereditary muscular dystrophy, nutritional myopathy, toxic myopathies, and marbling. There is still a lot of unknowns about the causes and potential treatment/cures but new studies are being started everyday to explore all possibilities. All that could be needed is a new ingredient to feed or we could have to do something as drastic as genetically alter the birds to slow them down. The poultry industry is a business and like any business profit is what drives it and wooden breasts are taking a large bite into that profit. Something has to be done to prevent future losses and secure the future of the poultry industry.

References:

Hargis, B.M.,Kuttappan,V.A.,Owens,C.M. 2016.White striping and woody breast myopathies in the modern poultry industry: a review. Pou. Sci. 95:2724