Wooden breast in broilers: Solution found

The syndrome is proving to be a serious problem for poultry husbandry, making the meat hard and chewy and rendering the animals – in extreme cases – unmarketable.

Focus on high breast meat yields

The main cause is the high growth rate and high breast meat yield. Due to the fast muscle growth and the enlarged muscle cells, the space between muscle fibres is reduced.

This restricts the blood supply to the muscles, which can no longer reach the desired oxygen levels. The resulting dead muscle cells harden the meat, causing the wooden breast.

However, after conducting major field trials in Europe and South America, the Nuscience Group believes it has developed an effective solution to the problem.

Reducing oxidative stress

The product Q-prove can lower the incidence of wooden breasts by reducing oxidative stress and supplying more oxygen to the cells, enabling the muscle cells to grow very fast without meat loss.

Trials have shown that at a higher age (around 42 days) the incidence of severe wooden breast can go up by 20%, but the company claims that adding the product can reduce this to around 2.5%.

The Belgium-based company believes its product will be helpful in markets with high growth rates, such as the United States, Brazil and Europe.