Researchers at the University of Delaware’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources have identified unique molecular characteristics of breasts from chickens with Wooden Breast Disorder, leading to the potential to predicatively test for the disorder in broilers.
The breast muscle myopathy, or disease of the muscle tissue, causes broilers to have a distinctly tough breast muscle and is often accompanied by white striping. The disorder can be felt while the birds are alive, and has affected flocks globally, causing losses due to poor aesthetic quality of the breasts during and after processing.
Mutryn et al. (2015) had previously identified genetic indicators of oxidative stress, decreased oxygen in the muscle tissue, and increased levels of calcium. Abasht et al. continued this research to examine if “biomarkers” could be identified based on the metabolism of the affected breast tissue. The authors identified 140 compounds that differed between affected and unaffected birds and were able to find 30 compounds of those 140 that were significant in characterizing affected birds’ tissues. The findings supported the hypothesis that affected breast tissues are experiencing oxidative stress and additionally found that the birds may have an altered glucose, or energy metabolism.
Though the authors stressed that the exact cause of Wooden Breast Disorder is not yet known, they hoped that their research will help in further studies to develop diagnostic testing for the disease. Abasht et al. additionally suggested that future research into nutrition, specifically different amounts of vitamin C, of broiler diets may be beneficial as the antioxidant qualities of the vitamin may help lower the disease incidence. An interview the researchers may be found here, and a link to the full scientific article may be found here.
