Oh Sang-Hyon, Noh Euyeon, Min Byungrok
Division of Animal Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52725, Korea.
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Resource Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Ann 21853, USA.
J Anim Sci Technol. 2024 Sep;66(5):1069-1078. doi: 10.5187/jast.2024.e14. Epub 2024 Sep 30.
Woody breast (WB) is one of muscle myopathy found in chicken breast, characterized with enlarged size and extremely stiff texture. The WB condition is one of the most prevalent quality issues in the modern poultry industry. WB has been shown to be heritable, but no effective detection method of WB severity in live birds exists for the selection purpose. The objective of this study was to determine potential of a non-invasive, portable digital palpation device as WB detection method that can be used for the selection to estimate the heritability of WB. The physical and functional properties of WB was also investigated in comparison with normal breast (NB). Two hundred ten breast muscles were obtained from a local processing plant one day after harvest and sorted based on WB scoring (1 for NB and 2 and 3 for WB). The samples were subjected to physical and physicochemical analyses, determining biomechanical properties (muscle tone, stiffness, elasticity, relaxation, and creep), pH, color, cooking yield, and texture (firmness and compression energy were used for raw meat and shear force and energy for cooked meat). The least squares means of the following variables were significantly different between WB and NB ( < 0.01): stiffness (603.4 vs 565.8; N/m), and elasticity (1.40 vs 1.55). However, relaxation and creep were not significantly different ( > 0.05). These results collectively showed that biomechanical properties of WB differ from NB. The degree of muscle stiffness in WB can be considered as a trait to be selected. The WB score showed strong negative correlations with cooking yield (-0.77) and cooked L*(-0.74), which means that as the breast becomes harder, the cooking yield decreases, and the color becomes darker after cooking. The WB score showed high correlations with physical and functional characteristics and exhibited strong correlations with the biomechanical properties measured by the device. Therefore, the results indicated that the digital palpation device has potential to detect the WB severity (degree of stiffness) of breast muscle.
木鸡胸（WB）是鸡胸中发现的一种肌肉肌病，其特征是尺寸增大且质地极其坚硬。WB状况是现代家禽业中最普遍的质量问题之一。WB已被证明具有遗传性，但目前尚无用于选择目的的在活禽中有效检测WB严重程度的方法。本研究的目的是确定一种非侵入性便携式数字触诊设备作为WB检测方法的潜力，该方法可用于选择以估计WB的遗传力。还与正常胸肉（NB）比较研究了WB的物理和功能特性。收获后一天从当地加工厂获取210块胸肌，并根据WB评分进行分类（NB为1分，WB为2分和3分）。对样品进行物理和物理化学分析，测定生物力学特性（肌张力、硬度、弹性、松弛和蠕变）、pH值、颜色、烹饪产量和质地（生肉使用硬度和压缩能，熟肉使用剪切力和能量）。WB和NB之间以下变量的最小二乘均值存在显著差异（<0.01）：硬度（603.4对565.8；N/m）和弹性（1.40对1.55）。然而，松弛和蠕变没有显著差异（>0.05）。这些结果共同表明WB的生物力学特性与NB不同。WB中的肌肉硬度程度可被视为一个可选择的性状。WB评分与烹饪产量（-0.77）和熟肉L*值（-0.74）呈强负相关，这意味着随着胸部变得更硬，烹饪产量降低，烹饪后颜色变深。WB评分与物理和功能特征高度相关，并与该设备测量的生物力学特性表现出强相关性。因此，结果表明数字触诊设备有潜力检测胸肌的WB严重程度（硬度程度）。
