Skeletal muscle metabolic characteristics and fresh meat quality defects associated with wooden breast.

Wooden breast (WB) is a myopathy that occurs in pectoralis major (PM) muscles, predominately affecting large, fast-growing broilers. Severe myodegeneration, increased hypoxia, reduced blood flow, and increased collagen deposition are hallmark characteristics of WB that culminate in unsatisfactory fresh meat quality attributes, such as poor water-holding capacity, tenderness, and processing characteristics. Therefore, WB meat is often downgraded resulting in economic losses for the United States poultry industry.

Skeletal Muscle Metabolism Is Dynamic during Porcine Postnatal Growth.

Skeletal muscle metabolism has implications for swine feed efficiency (FE); however, it remains unclear if the metabolic profile of skeletal muscle changes during postnatal growth. To assess the metabolic changes, samples were collected from the (LD, glycolytic muscle), (LAT, mixed muscle), and (MS, oxidative muscle) at 20, 53, 87, 120, and 180 days of age from barrows. Muscles were assessed to determine the abundance of several metabolic enzymes.