Comparison of some chemical and physical characteristics of Pectoralis major muscles between Wooden Breast affected and Normal broilers

Recently, an unknown myopathy has been observed in some Finnish broiler Pectoralis major muscle for the past 3 years and similar breast muscle defect have been found in several other countries as well. Wooden Breast is the term to describe this abnormality due to its macroscopically visible hard, bulging and pale area in the caudal part of the fillet. This study aims to compare and measure some physical properties and chemical composition differences between Wooden Breast and Normal broiler breast muscle. 32 breast fillets of 38 days old Rose 508 broilers were sacrificed at the university experiment premises for evaluation. 20 breasts muscle were Wooden Breast affected, and the other 12 macroscopically Normal breast muscles served as Normal. In this experiment, measurement of sample physical properties (drip loss, cook loss, compression test, and Allo-Kramer shear force) and chemical composition (moisture, protein, and collagen content) were conducted. As for the results, Wooden Breast had lower protein content and higher moisture content (P0.05); No quantitative difference in total or soluble collagen were detected (P>0.05)