Only a few years ago, the poultry industry began to face a recent abnormality in breast meat, known as wooden breast, which frequently overlaps with white striping. This study aimed to assess the impact of wooden breast abnormality on quality traits of meat. For this purpose, 32 normal (NRM), 32 wooden (WB), and 32 wooden and white-striped (WB/WS) Pectoralis major muscles were selected from the same flock of heavy broilers (males, Ross 708, weighing around 3.7 kg) in the deboning area of a commercial processing plant at 3 h postmortem and used to assess histology, proximate (moisture, protein, fat, ash, and collagen) and mineral composition (Mg, K, P, Na and Ca), sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar protein patterns, and technological traits of breast meat. Compared to the normal group, WB/WS fillets showed more severe histological lesions characterized by fiber degeneration, fibrosis, and lipidosis, coupled with a significantly harder texture. With regard to proximate and mineral composition, abnormal samples exhibited significantly (P < 0.001) higher moisture, fat, and collagen contents coupled with lower (P < 0.001) amounts of protein and ash. Furthermore, increased calcium (131 vs. 84 mg kg⁻¹; P < 0.05) and sodium (741 vs. 393 mg kg⁻¹; P < 0.001) levels were found in WB/WS meat samples. The SDS-PAGE analysis revealed a significantly lower amount of calcium-ATPase (SERCA, 114 kDa), responsible for the translocation of Ca ions across the membrane, in normal breasts compared to abnormal ones. As for meat quality traits, fillets affected by wooden abnormality exhibited significantly (P < 0.001) higher ultimate pH and lower water-holding/water-binding capacity. In particular, compared to normal, abnormal samples showed reduced marinade uptake coupled with increased drip loss and cooking losses as well. In conclusion, this study revealed that meat affected by wooden breast or both wooden breast and white striping abnormalities exhibit poorer nutritional value, harder texture, and impaired water-holding capacity.

During the past few years, there has been an increasing prevalence of broiler breast muscle abnormalities, such as white striping (WS) and wooden breast conditions. More recently, a new muscular abnormality termed as spaghetti meat (SM) because of the altered structural integrity of the Pectoralis major muscle often associated with WS has emerged. Thus, this study aimed at evaluating the effects of WS and SM conditions, occurring alone or combined within the same P. major muscle, on meat quality traits and muscle histology. In two replications, 96 P. major muscles were classified into four classes: normal (N), WS, SM and WS/SM. The whole fillet was used for weight assessment and morphometric measurements, then each sample was cut in order to separate the superficial layer from the deep one and used to evaluate proximate composition, histological features, nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation times, functional properties and both myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins profile. Fillets affected by WS and SM abnormalities exhibited higher weights and increased thickness and length. SM condition was associated with a relevant decrease in protein content coupled with a significant increase in moisture level, whereas fat content was affected only by the simultaneous presence of WS. Histological evaluations revealed that abnormal samples were characterized by several degenerative aspects that almost completely concerned the superficial layer of the fillets. White striped fillets exhibited necrosis and lysis of fibers, fibrosis, lipidosis, loss of cross striation and vacuolar degeneration. Moreover, SM samples were characterized by poor fiber uniformity and a progressive rarefaction of the endo- and peri-mysial connective tissue, whereas WS/SM fillets showed intermediate histological features. Nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation analysis revealed a higher proportion of extra-myofibrillar water in the superficial section of all the abnormal fillets, especially in SM samples, which consequently led to a reduction of the water holding capacity of meat. As for functional properties, abnormal fillets exhibited a lower protein solubility and higher ultimate pH values on both the superficial and deep sections. Although abnormal fillets exhibited higher yellowness values, no relevant effect on meat color was observed. The occurrence of WS and SM abnormalities led to increased carbonylation levels and more intense proteolytic processes. Overall, muscle abnormalities mainly affect the superficial layer of P. major muscle and particularly the occurrence of SM myopathy seems to implicate a more pronounced modification of meat quality traits than the mere presence of WS.

A trial was conducted to evaluate the influence of myodegeneration of pectoralis major muscle on quality traits and chemical composition of breast me

The microbial community in the guts of mammals is often seen as an important potential target in therapeutic and preventive interventions. The aim of

Recently the poultry industry faced an emerging muscle abnormality termed wooden breast (WB), the prevalence of which has dramatically increased in the past few years. Considering the incomplete knowledge concerning this condition and the lack of information on possible variations due to the intra-fillet sampling locations (superficial vs. deep position) and aging of the samples, this study aimed at investigating the effect of 7-d storage of broiler breast muscles on histology, texture, and particle size distribution, evaluating whether the sampling position exerts a relevant role in determining the main features of WB. With regard to the histological observations, severe myodegeneration accompanied by accumulation of connective tissue was observed within the WB cases, irrespective of the intra-fillet sampling position. No changes in the histological traits took place during the aging in either the normal or the WB samples. As to textural traits, although a progressive tenderization process took place during storage (P ≤ 0.001), the differences among the groups were mainly detected when raw meat rather than cooked was analyzed, with the WB samples exhibiting the highest (P ≤ 0.001) 80% compression values. In spite of the increased amount of connective tissue components in the WB cases, their thermally labile cross-links will account for the similar compression and shear-force values as normal breast cases when measured on cooked samples. Similarly, the enlargement of extracellular matrix and fibrosis might contribute in explaining the different fragmentation patterns observed between the superficial and the deep layer in the WB samples, with the superficial part exhibiting a higher amount of larger particles and an increase in particles with larger size during storage, compared to normal breasts.

A trial was conducted to compare muscle traits and meat quality characteristics of the pectoralis muscle in 2 chicken commercial hybrids having standard (SBY) and high breast yield (HBY), respectively. A total of 2,124 one-day-old male chicks, equally divided into 2 experimental groups represented by strains (SBY and HBY), were grown using homogenous conditions and fed the same standard diets until reaching live weight of 4.2 kg at 53 and 55 d for the SBY and HBY groups, respectively. Thirty-six birds per each genotype were randomly selected, and their pectoralis major muscles were used to assess meat quality properties (color attributes, pH, drip loss, cook loss, Allo-Kramer shear values after cooking, moisture, proteins, total lipids, and ashes) as well as histological traits (cross-sectional area, frequency of abnormal fibers, and intramuscular fat infiltration). As expected, HBY genotype had higher breast yield (31.0 vs. 30.0%; P ≤ 0.05). Histological evaluations showed that HBY pectoralis muscles had higher cross-sectional fiber area coupled with a dramatically higher (P ≤ 0.001) incidence of abnormal fibers and more abundant infiltration of intramuscular fat. Moreover, histopathological anomalous features such as central nuclei, proliferation of endomysial and perimysial collagen, inflammatory infiltrate, and necrosis of the fibers were also observed. As for meat quality, SBY hybrid showed lower ultimate pH values (5.97 vs. 6.07; P ≤ 0.01), whereas overall color parameters were not affected by genotype. Breast meat from the HBY genotype also exhibited significantly lower ability to retain liquid during refrigerated storage (drip loss, 2.46 vs. 2.06%; P ≤ 0.05) and cooking (26.2 vs. 21.1%; P ≤ 0.05) as well as higher shear-force values (2.59 vs. 2.11 kg/g; P ≤ 0.001). Finally, with regard to chemical composition, significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) were detected in protein (22.8 vs. 23.5%) and lipid (1.65 vs. 1.82%) contents, which were significantly lower in the HBY hybrid, whereas moisture content tended (P = 0.07) to be inferior in the SBY hybrid.