Characteristics and incidence of broiler chicken wooden breast meat under commercial conditions in China

Abstract

Wooden breast (WB) has emerged as a dramatically increasing myopathy in the poultry industry over the past few years. The objective of this study was to investigate the incidence of WB in a Chinese commercial broiler processing plant, and the consequences on quality attributes, textural properties, and sensory traits. A total of 1,135 breast fillets were collected at the deboning line and assigned to normal, mild, moderate, and severe WB categories by tactile evaluation. The proportion affected by WB was approximately 61.9%. WB fillets appeared heavier and thicker than normal fillets. The degree of WB myopathy was highly correlated with fillet weight and thickness. The meat quality characteristics of cooking loss and purge loss increased along with increasing severity of WB myopathy. Compression tests of raw meat revealed higher cutting strength and shear values for WB. In cooked meat, only severe WB fillets exhibited elevated hardness and chewiness. Finally, moderate and severe WB fillets affected the sensory evaluation by consumers owing to their impaired general appearance, texture, and drip loss. The results suggested that a high proportion of WB broiler fillets would cause detrimental losses to the poultry meat retailing and processing industry.

Enhanced transforming growth factor-beta signaling and fibrosis in the pectoralis major muscle of broiler chickens affected by wooden breast myopathy

“…The affected areas show histological changes characterized by polyphasic myodegeneration and necrosis, infiltration of macrophages and heterophils, as well as interstitial connective-tissue accumulation ( Sihvo et al., 2014 ). Wooden breast disorder impairs the appearance and technological and nutritional properties of breast meat and negatively affects consumer purchases ( Soglia et al., 2015 ; Xing et al., 2020 ). Considerable studies have been conducted to investigate the possible etiologies leading to the development of WB myopathy, suggesting that localized hypoxia, oxidative stress, inflammatory responses, fiber-type switching, and metabolic shift are multifactorial components of this myopathy ( Petracci et al., 2019 ).…”

Enhanced cytokine expression and upregulation of inflammatory signaling pathways in broiler chickens affected by wooden breast myopathy

“…This myopathy has been garnering tremendous attention as the affected fillets have unappealing appearance and impaired functional properties during processing 3 . Moreover, the occurrence of WB myopathy has been reported on a global scale, and the incidence has increased dramatically over the past few years, 4,5 which causes substantial economic losses to the modern poultry industry.…”

Innovative Characterization Based on Stress Relaxation and Creep to Reveal the Tenderizing Effect of Ultrasound on Wooden Breast

“…A C-LM3B tenderization analyzer (Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China) was used to conduct shear force tests according the method of Xing [ 18 ]. Cubes were packaged in plastic bags individually and then heated in 80 °C water bath until the core temperature reached 75 °C.…”

“…Analysis of meat quality found that shear force and compression force in WB are significantly higher than those in the normal breast (NB) [ 14 , 17 ], thus causing low consumer acceptance and economic loss. Xing [ 18 ] surveyed the incidence of WB in China, and the proportion was approximately 61.9%. Kuttappan [ 16 ] estimated that WB caused approximately $200 million economic losses due to trimming, drip loss, cook loss, downgrading and discarding.…”