A field study was conducted to determine the incidence of Deep Pectoral Myopathy (DPM) in male roaster chickens reared under intensive conditions, processed at different ages (from 47 to 65d), and belonging to two commercial genotypes (Ross508; Cobb500). The study was carried out in a major Italian processing plant on a total of 120,700 roaster chickens chosen at random from 151 flocks during a 6 months period. The evaluation of DPM was performed on Pectoralis minor muscles and consisted in a visual assessment of the presence/absence of the myopathy as well as the determination of muscle damage level as being in an “early” (hemorrhagic appearance) or “old” (grey/green discoloration) developing stage. The incidence of carcasses affected by DPM was found to be 0.84% (0.62 and 0.22% in early and old stages, respectively). The range in the incidence of total DPM was fairly large and varied from 0.0 to 16.7%. Considerable variations were also observed for early (range: 0.0 to 12,0%) and old (range: 0.0 to 5.6%) developing stages. Considering the effect of genotype, Ross508 exhibited a higher incidence of DPM in respect with Cobb500 roasters (1.27 vs. 0.35%; P < 0.01). This result was due to the higher incidence of carcasses affected by both early (0.94 vs. 0.26%; P < 0.01) and old (0.33 vs. 0.09%; P < 0.01) developing stages of DPM in Ross508 birds. In conclusions, this study has shown that the occurrence of Deep Pectoral Myopathy in male roaster chickens may be economically significant to the industry as a whole.
The occurrence of Deep Pectoral Myopathy in roaster chickens
BIANCHI, MAURIZIO;PETRACCI, MASSIMILIANO;CAVANI, CLAUDIO;FRANCHINI, ACHILLE
2005
Abstract
A field study was conducted to determine the incidence of Deep Pectoral Myopathy (DPM) in male roaster chickens reared under intensive conditions, processed at different ages (from 47 to 65d), and belonging to two commercial genotypes (Ross508; Cobb500). The study was carried out in a major Italian processing plant on a total of 120,700 roaster chickens chosen at random from 151 flocks during a 6 months period. The evaluation of DPM was performed on Pectoralis minor muscles and consisted in a visual assessment of the presence/absence of the myopathy as well as the determination of muscle damage level as being in an “early” (hemorrhagic appearance) or “old” (grey/green discoloration) developing stage. The incidence of carcasses affected by DPM was found to be 0.84% (0.62 and 0.22% in early and old stages, respectively). The range in the incidence of total DPM was fairly large and varied from 0.0 to 16.7%. Considerable variations were also observed for early (range: 0.0 to 12,0%) and old (range: 0.0 to 5.6%) developing stages. Considering the effect of genotype, Ross508 exhibited a higher incidence of DPM in respect with Cobb500 roasters (1.27 vs. 0.35%; P < 0.01). This result was due to the higher incidence of carcasses affected by both early (0.94 vs. 0.26%; P < 0.01) and old (0.33 vs. 0.09%; P < 0.01) developing stages of DPM in Ross508 birds. In conclusions, this study has shown that the occurrence of Deep Pectoral Myopathy in male roaster chickens may be economically significant to the industry as a whole.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
