Quality defects associated with poultry muscle development: wooden breast

The increasing consumer demand for poultry meat has led to intensive breeding programs to achieve higher growths rates and high breast yields in modern chickens, indirectly resulting in the occurrence of growth-related muscular abnormalities. Among these, wooden breast (WB) is characterized by bulging and pale areas of hardened consistency mainly occurring in the Ppectoralis major muscles of fast-growing broilers. Since WB has detrimental effects on the quality and technological properties of poultry meat, there has been significant research to identify causative mechanisms and strategies to minimize its negative effects. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding WB, focusing on: (a) the possible factors underlying the occurrence of WB,; (b) the main features of this abnormality and its effects on key poultry meat quality traits; and (c) potential strategies to mitigate the detrimental effects of WB.