Occurrence of white striping and wooden breast in broilers fed grower and finisher diets with increasing lysine levels

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the prevalence and severity of white striping (WS) and wooden breast (WB) in breast fillets from broilers fed diets with increasing digestible Lysine (dLys) from 12 to 28 d (Exp. 1) and from 28 to 42 d (Exp. 2). Trials were sequentially conducted using one-d-old male, slow-feathering Cobb 500 × Cobb broilers, both with 6 treatments and 8 replicates. Increasing dLys levels were equally spaced from 0.77 to 1.17% in Exp. 1 and from 0.68 to 1.07% in Exp. 2. The lowest dLys diet was not supplemented with L-Lysine (L-Lys) in either one of the studies and all other essential amino acid (AA) met or exceeded current commercial recommendations such that their dietary concentrations did not limit broiler growth. Four birds per pen were randomly selected from each replication and processed at 35 and 42 d in Exp. 1 and Exp. 2, respectively. Deboned breast fillets (Pectoralis major) were submitted to a 3 subject panel evaluation to detect the presence of WS and WB, as well as to provide scores of WS (0-normal, 1-moderate, 2-severe) and WB (0-normal, 1-moderate light, 2-moderate, 3-severe). Increasing the level of dLys had a positive effect on BW, carcass, and breast weight, as well as breast yield. White striping and WB prevalences were 32.3 and 85.9% in Exp. 1 and 87.1 and 89.2% in Exp. 2. Birds fed diets not supplemented with L-Lys had the lowest average WS and WB scores (0.22 and 0.78 in Exp. 1 and 0.61 and 0.68 in Exp. 2). White striping and WB presented linear responses to performance variables in Exp. 1, whereas quadratic responses were observed for all variables in Exp. 2. In conclusion, increasing the level of dLys improved growth performance and carcass traits as well as induced the occurrence and severity of WS and WB lesions.

Wooden‐Breast, White Striping, and Spaghetti Meat: Causes, Consequences and Consumer Perception of Emerging Broiler Meat Abnormalities

“…Several studies have been conducted to ascertain the possible factors involved in the occurrence of WS, WB, and SM in fast-growing broilers (Table 4). It is widely accepted that the incidence of breast abnormalities rises with increasing slaughter weight (Cruz et al, 2016;Lorenzi et al, 2014;Papah et al, 2017), growth rate (Kuttappan et al, 2012a(Kuttappan et al, , 2013a(Kuttappan et al, , 2017Lorenzi et al, 2014), and genetic potential for breast meat yield (Alnahhas et al, 2016;Bailey et al, 2015;Livingston et al, 2018;Lorenzi et al, 2014;Petracci et al, 2013;Trocino et al, 2015) in agreement with strong genetic correlations found by Alnahhas et al (2016). This has been also confirmed by histological observations which evidenced that myodegeneration progress associated with the development of breast abnormalities is strictly related to age at slaughter (Griffin et al, 2018;Kawasaki et al, 2018;Papah et al, 2017;Radaelli et al, 2017;Sihvo et al, 2017) and breast growth pattern (Papah et al, 2017) (Table 5; Radaelli et al, 2017).…”

“…Several studies have been conducted to ascertain the possible factors involved in the occurrence of WS, WB, and SM in fast‐growing broilers (Table ). It is widely accepted that the incidence of breast abnormalities rises with increasing slaughter weight (Cruz et al., ; Lorenzi et al., ; Papah et al., ), growth rate (Kuttappan et al., , , ; Lorenzi et al., ), and genetic potential for breast meat yield (Alnahhas et al., ; Bailey et al., ; Livingston et al., ; Lorenzi et al., ; Petracci et al., ; Trocino et al., ) in agreement with strong genetic correlations found by Alnahhas et al. ().…”

“…These authors reported a hardened consistency and pale appearance in the pectoral muscles which is microscopically characterized by polyphasic myodegenerations with fibrosis in the chronic phase. Both the aforementioned abnormalities have been reported to coincide in the same muscle although the existence of concurring pathological underlying mechanisms responsible for their occurrence is a disputable topic (Cruz et al., ; Kuttappan, Hargis, & Owens, ; Livingston, Landon, Barnes, & Brake, ). WS, in turn, may also appear together with an additional and recently reported myopathy called SM.…”

Occurrence and Severity of White Striping in Broilers Until 50d of Age Fed with High and Low-Energy Diets: Body Weight, Histopathological Changes and Meat Quality

“…This myopathy has been associated with an increased muscle hypertrophy of fast-growing chickens, witch brings about a reduced capillary supply that could result in a decreased source of nutrients and oxygen and slower removal lactic acid from breast muscles, which ultimately may lead to muscle damage [2,45].…”

“…The high productive of poultry as a result of a constant increase in the world demand for white meat with a intensive genetic selection for fast growth rate and high breast yield, have been spurring the broiler industry towards practices that increase its production [1][2][3], and these factors may induce metabolic stresses that can negatively impact meat quality [4][5][6]. More recently, high growth rate and high breast yield have been associated with the occurrence of other myopathies affecting pectoralis major and other muscles, i.e., white striping [7,8].…”