theISSUES

42 meatingplace.com November 2016

orGENETICSNUTRITION…

which comes first?

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43meatingplace.com November 2016

Occurring in about one out of every 10 deboned whole breast fillets, a poultry myopathy now known as woody breast

affects both the texture and the shape of the fillet, leaving further processors scratching their heads over what to do with otherwise perfectly safe breast meat that is nearly guaranteed to be turned away by the end consumer.

The severity of this condition varies from nearly undetectable to severe. University of Ar-kansas Associate Professor Casey Owens devel-oped a scoring system to evaluate degree of hard-ness in fillets; those scores range from normal (0) to mild (1), moderate (2) and severe (3). Scores

of 2 and 3 are easily discernable in the raw state. They also provide the least water-holding capacity and can cause issues in portioning, decreasing the “workability” of the fillets — particularly in the first couple of days after processing.

As a result, much of the focus of remediation efforts is to reduce scores by point (for example, to reduce incidence of scores of 2 to

IT RARELY MAKES IT ONTO CONSUMERS’ PLATES, BUT A POULTRY CONDITION THAT’S BEEN BAFFLING SCIENTISTS IS COSTING THE POULTRY INDUSTRY $200 MILLION ANNUALLY — AND THAT’S A CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE.

by Michael Fielding, managing editor of technical content

For more technical

coverage of woody breast,

visit meatm.ag/woodbrst

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44 meatingplace.com November 2016

1 or even 0) to allow as much of the product to be sent into commerce as a more profitable whole fillet.

Scientists know enough about the “what” but have yet to make significant progress on the “why,” as in: What’s the genetic component to this condition — and why now? There is ongoing research at mul-tiple universities addressing the physiological and genetic causes of the disorder.

NUTRITIONAL COMPONENT

“From a nutritional standpoint, we can poten-tially feed birds differently to help us with this issue. It’s got to be a multi-factor situation; nu-trition plays some sort of a role,” says Jason Lee, associate professor of poultry science at Texas A&M University. “We know we’re pushing these birds fast and that growth rate is very high.”

For example, in 1965, 3.5-pound birds took 63 days to get to market; in 2015, birds that weighed 6.2 pounds took just 48 days to get to market. Meanwhile, muscle disorders such as myopa-thies paralleled the rise in heavier, faster bird growth in recent years.

Lee and his colleagues have developed an al-ternative nutritional regimen to test whether the

fast development of the first 12 days of growth may be slowed through the second and third weeks to allow the broiler’s young body to recover.

“It’s kind of like body builders. You have days of recovery. We’re going to target this period as a recovery phase,” Lee explains. The team found that high-yield, fast-growing broilers do make up

that weight reduction due to diet changes and end up at the same weight as broilers that didn’t have reduction of growth — and they do it with fewer incidences of woody breast.

Severe woody breast incidence was reduced by 10 percent, while breast fillets absent of woody breast increased 10 percent — good news for processors. And on the scoring system that Owens developed, Lee saw a 10 percent reduction of breast fillets that were classified as “severe.” “We’re shifting the proportion of severe down one classification,” he says.

Additionally, feeding 15 percent less d-Lysine (an amino acid) resulted in a lower feed cost and the same breast yield as broilers fed a conven-tional diet.

As a result, the potential revenue generated may be as high as $0.20/bird or $10 million per

GlossaryWOODY BREAST

Breast muscle that is

hard to the touch, bulg-

ing in appearance and

often pale in color. The

sarcomeres are longer

in hard, "woody" fillets

compared to typical

carcasses, which

indicates that their

state of contraction

is less than the con-

tractile state in early

deboned normal fillets.

SARCOMERES Basic contractile

unit of muscle that

consists of myofibrils

(elongated contractile

threads). The degree

of muscle contrac-

tion is measured

by the length of the

sarcomeres, and

shorter sarcomeres

are associated with

reduced tenderness.

MYOPATHY Disorder of muscle

tissue.

LYSINE An amino acid that is

used in the biosyn-

thesis of proteins. For

example, one study

showed that d-Lysine

fed to growing broilers

during weeks three and

eight of age resulted

in a lower feed cost

and the same breast

yield as those fed a

conventional diet.

LBS. BROILER MEAT PRODUCTS IN U.S. TOTAL:

49.75 BILLION

Source: Casey Owens, University of Arkansas

THE COST OF WOODY BREAST ON THE INDUSTRY

Woody breast meat is diverted into further processing of products such as chicken nuggets.

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plant that processes 1 million broilers weekly and typically experiences a high incidence of woody breast.

Though most scientists agree that nutrition is a promising starting point, they don’t agree on what’s best for the bird’s particular diet.

With some of the latest research pointing to oxidative stress as the physiological cause, scien-tists are considering whether diets supplement-ed with antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, may help reduce incidences of the disorder.

GLOBAL CONCERN

The condition has been found in several coun-tries, including Brazil, Finland and Italy, where two decades of demand for cut-up and fur-ther-processed products — particularly those made with breast meat — have pushed the indus-try to increase breast yield and produce heavier birds for further processing.

The condition is prevalent across Europe, as the same fast-growing hybrids are used for meat production.

The myopathy began appearing at the beginning of the decade and began affecting processors commercially as early as 2012, explains Massimiliano Petracci, assistant professor at the University of Bologna in Italy.

Although the occurrence remains at less than 10 percent of overall birds produced, it fluctuates with slaughter weight: At slaughter weights less than 4.5 pounds it’s not proven much of a challenge; however, as slaughter weights exceed 6.5 pounds, the incidence of moderate and severe cases of woody

breast jumps to 20 percent to 30 percent.“The most effective short-term solutions are

to avoid the fast-growing hybrids, those having the highest breast yields; reduce as much as possible the weight at slaughter; and modulate growth rate by dietary and management means,” Petracci advises. “Nutrition strategies may help, but up to now there have been few studies that show strong relevance of dietary factors. Ulti-mately, only the genetic companies may reduce the extent of the myopathy or solve the problem altogether.”

PROCESSORS FIND WORKAROUNDS

As scientists hone in on both short- and long-term solutions, though, processors are forced to find immediate workarounds.

Severe woody breast condition affects both appearance and texture of the meat, which tends to be rubbery. Because of that, poul-

try plants tend to downgrade moderate and severe woody breasts, and potentially divert the meat into processed products where implications on sensory properties are of less importance. Grinding or finely comminuting reduce much both appearance and textural problems associated with woody condition.

Woody breast is limiting industry supply growth as compa-nies reduce chicken weights to avoid the problem, Sanderson Farms Chief Executive Joe Sanderson Jr. says.

Sanderson told analysts in September that the industry will see smaller weight gains in 2017 than in the past as processors

19251935 1940 1945 1950 1955

1960 1965 1970 1975 19801985 1990 1995

20002005

20102015

1925

19351940 1945

1950 19551960 1965

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Getting bigger…Avg. broiler market weight (pounds)

…Growing fasterAvg. days to gain one pound

2.52.86

44.8

34.3

29.4 27.7

22.7 22.818.8 18.1

15.5 14.913.5 11.7 11 10.1 9.3 8.9 8.2 7.7

2.89 3.03 3.08 3.073.35 3.48 3.62 3.76 3.93

4.19 4.374.67

5.035.37

5.76.24

Source: National Chicken Council

LBS. MEAT FROM LARGE BROILERS >6 LBS. (68%):

33.83 BILLION

THE COST OF WOODY BREAST ON THE INDUSTRY

VALUE OF LOST YIELD ASSOC. WITH COOK

LOSS, $1.49/LB. GEORGIA DOCK PRICES:

$80.66 MILLION

(VALUE OF COOK LOSS)Source: Casey Owens, University of Arkansas

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work to bring chicken weights down.

Some restaurant chains are considering requiring their sup-pliers to move to a smaller broiler because they are having problems with woody breast meat, accord-ing to Sanderson, adding that the problem appears to be a function of the chicken’s genetics, and that it will take breeders a couple of years to correct it.

Sanderson Farms employs extra workers on its lines to find and remove products with woody breast so they don’t reach customers, Sanderson says. The meat, which is wholesome despite its toughness, can be ground for chicken nuggets, he adds, noting that Sanderson Farms has a further processing customer that takes that product.

Others, meanwhile, have a different take. A spokesman for Tyson Foods told Meatingplace that “we’ve not seen an issue in our chicken oper-ations,” and West Liberty Foods CEO Ed Garrett admits that the condition largely is a problem with primary processors. West Liberty, which focuses its product lines on restructured and sliced poultry, says he hasn’t seen the condition “at all” at his plants.

“We also produce fully cooked chicken strips,

and we are not seeing an impact on that either,” adds Garrett, whose company makes more than 70 million pounds of chicken products annually. “Either our suppliers are doing a good job of grading it out, or our process is taking care of it. It could be because we’re breaking it down to less than a-quarter-inch-by-a-quarter-inch pieces.”

Still, the more severe cases of woody breast are hard to the touch

and can make it difficult for deboning machines to remove the fillet from the bone frame. The rea-son: The muscle is less pliable than that of breast meat without the myopathy.

For trimmers, the meat may be more difficult to handle due to the extreme firmness through-out the fillet, Owens adds.

“There are a lot of factors that can go into what the costs really are,” Owens says. “Some business is being lost and some product just diverted.” Di-verting the meat into other products allows it to be cut more easily and even ground into ground products.

“Grinding is definitely an option … making that breast meat into smaller pieces,” explains Ashley Peterson, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at the National Chicken Coun-

Novel nutritionA reduction of 15 percent of digestible amino acids during the grower

phase reduced the average woody breast score by 18 percent: The amino

acid digestible lysine (dLys) was reduced 15 percent, and all other digest-

ible amino acids were ratioed to dLys in the formulation, according to

Jason Lee, associate professor of poultry science at Texas A&M University

and the nutritionist who developed the alternative nutrition regimen.

Considering that the diet has less protein to begin with, he found that

the reduction in amino acid density did not negatively influence either the

final body weight at 45 days of age or feed conversion ratio.

“Right now nutrition is our best option for an immediate impact,” Lee

says. “I don’t know if there’s a genetic component to this, but that’s years

down the road. That’s probably a more permanent solution, but right now,

we can control what we’re putting into that animal.”

Lee set out to ensure that the novel nutritional strategy didn’t have

an impact on the final body weight of the animal. In other words, it was

designed to reduce the incidence of woody breast while ensuring that the

final weight was similar to that of birds fed with conventional diets. “We

want to find strategies that will not sacrifice yield,” he says. “Sacrificing

yield is probably not a sustainable approach.”

The novel diet consists of a reduction in of three amino acids — L-Lysine,

DL-Methionine and L-Threonine — all of which serve as the building blocks

to build muscle. Researchers reduced the amount of those amino acids by

15 percent each, which allowed the birds to slow their growth rate (thus

reducing the possibility for woody breast), but after slight adjustments

upward in the nutritional balance of the amino acids, the birds netted a

final weight similar to those given the conventional nutrition plan.

Breast weight and yield were the same, but the control group scored

more severe woody breast scores — and at Score 3, the most severe, the

birds fed the low amino acid diet also had a 40 percent better chance at

reducing breast scores to 2 from 3.

LBS. BREAST MEAT AFFECTED, BASED ON

10% INCIDENCE:

676.7 MILLION

THE COST OF WOODY BREAST ON THE INDUSTRY

VALUE OF MEAT AT 50% REDUCTION, $0.75/LB.:

$507.54 MILLION

(LOST VALUE OF MEAT)Source: Casey Owens, University of Arkansas

Researchers are looking into whether slowing the growth of broilers during the first 12 days of their life will help address woody breast issues.

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cil. “You don’t even have to grind it, but if you make it into chunks of chicken where you cut the muscle fibers … cook it and make salad topping — like for diced chicken — reducing that particle size should work.”

Other processors use tenderizers to break up the muscle fibers of the intact breast meat, but the deboned breast meat from broilers in the heavy market will continue to pose a problem for further processors. The meat is portioned into more appropriate sizes depending on its final use.

Portioned products are used in many food-service products such as meat for center-of-the-plate chicken, chicken sandwich, whole muscle nuggets, strips and popcorn chicken.

Portioned meat is also marketed at retail as fresh or frozen.

In today’s market, broilers are often deboned immediately out of the chiller, which is about two to three hours postmortem, and it is at that time when the meat is the toughest due to early debon-ing and the interaction with rigor development.

However, in contrast to normal meat, Ow-ens says that woody breast does not seem to be affected by that contractile toughness, likely due to the increased changes in muscle structure (increased collagen and sarcomere length).

Should the workability of the fillets be an issue, they may be aged for a couple days to allow them to soften to ease in the portioning process.

However, Owens says that though woody breast fillets can soften over time, that does not mean that textural issues of cooked fillets are resolved.

INDUSTRY REACTION

“I don’t really know that it’s correlated to the size or the larger birds, but that’s why we’ve got researchers trying to figure it out. Is it a genetic issue? Is it a nutritional issue? And why now?” Peterson says.

“What have we unintentionally selected for in that process? That’s something that researchers are looking at, to see if there’s a way that we can undo that.”

One thing is certain, she adds: Companies are relocating workers to further processing lines to help identify woody breast. “The only way to ‘diagnose’ is to actually palpate the breast muscle and make the determination from there.”

In the end, the solution likely will come not from within the plants but externally, from the nutritionists and geneticists themselves.

“It’s more of a concern because we currently don’t know what’s causing it. That is the big-ger concern,” explains Tom Super, senior vice president of communications for the National Chicken Council.

“The general consensus is that the breeders will eventually breed this thing out.”

A new diet plan

INGREDIENT

STARTER DIET,

DAYS 1-2

GROWER DIET W/AMINO

ACIDS, DAYS 13-26

TEST DIET W/15% FEWER AMINO ACIDS,

DAYS 13-26 DAYS 27-40

Corn 53.15 58.16 66.62 62.23

DDGS 5.00 6.00 6.00 7.00

SBM* 35.55 29.13 21.95 24.29

MBM* ---- 2.00 2.00 2.00

Calcium carbonate 1.21 0.83 0.89 0.71

Monocalcium phosphate 0.83 0.24 0.29 0.02

Salt (NaCl) 0.51 0.44 0.44 0.41

L-lysine HCL 0.28 0.26 0.25 0.25

DL-Methionine 0.34 0.30 0.22 0.25

L-Threonine 0.11 0.10 0.08 0.09

Other 3.03 2.54 1.25 2.74

TOTAL 100 100 100 100

*SBM is soybean meal, and MBM is meat and bone meal Source: Jason Lee, Texas A&M University

LBS. ADDITIONAL COOK LOSS, BASED ON 8% YIELD LOSS:

54.1 MILLIONLBS. BREAST MEAT FROM LARGER

BROILERS, BASED ON 20% YIELD LOSS:

6.76 BILLIONTHE COST OF WOODY BREAST ON THE INDUSTRY

Source: Casey Owens, University of Arkansas

Woody breast muscle is hard to the touch, bulging in

appearance and often pale in color.