Advancing knowledge on wooden breast syndrome

Each year, Delaware farms raise more than 240 million broiler chickens, the top agricultural commodity in the state with a $3.5 billion impact on the state's economy.

But a disease characterized by firm, yellowish breast muscle is estimated to affect up to 5% of a given flock, rendering meat from those birds unmarketable. The disease, known as wooden breast syndrome, may be costing U.S. poultry farmers at least $200 million per year.

University of Delaware researchers in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources have made a new discovery in their work on wooden breast syndrome in chickens. The UD team found white blood cells filled with fat surrounding broiler chickens' veins and showing signs of swelling are key contributing factors to this muscle degeneration disease in these birds that can ultimately affect their meat quality.

Broiler chickens with wooden breast syndrome tend to have tough and chewy meat. The cause is unknown, but there is speculation the disease results from genetically breeding chickens to have larger breast muscle mass.

In new research published in the journalScientific Reports, UD researchers in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences used an emerging technique called spatial transcriptomics to obtain detailed information on what the genes in individual cell types are doing within chicken muscle tissue. The researchers could see what specific information was encoded in each of the genes in chickens' various cells. They found white blood cells called lipid-laden macrophages, or "foam cells," close to chickens' veins are the key cells responsible for altering the breakdown and storage of fats at the onset of wooden breast syndrome.

The findings could help better understand a disease that has puzzled Delaware's top agricultural industry.

But spatial transcriptomics isn't only for the birds. What the researchers have discovered with spatial transcriptomics could help advance studies of obesity in humans.