Dr. Petracci: Broiler breast abnormalities

aviNews International interviewed Dr. Massimiliano Petracci to discuss broiler breast abnormalities at the World’s Poultry Congress in Paris in 2022.

Dr. Petracci is a full professor at the University of Bologna. His research is about several aspects of poultry and product quality. Currently, Dr. Petracci is working on the characterization of the emerging meat abnormalities in poultry, such as white stripping, wooden breast, and spaghetti meat. He is also the author of more than 100 scientific articles.

Talking about the main factors during the broilers’ growth that cause the development of breast abnormalities, Dr. Petracci explained that this kind of abnormality increased a lot during the last decade.

Therefore, in the last ten years, “we understand that the main factor is the genetic background of the chicken, and we see that the fast-growing chickens that nowadays are used to produce chicken meat worldwide are more prompt to develop this kind of abnormality respect to the slow-growing chickens.”

Another important factor that Dr. Petracci mentioned is the slaughtering age. “We understand that a bird slaughtered at 3 kilograms or more exhibits a high proportion of breast abnormality. So, in the end, the genetic and the final slaughter weight can affect a lot the occurrence of breast abnormality.”

On the other hand, many scientists are trying to understand the metabolic origin or pathway that produces breast abnormalities. Dr. Petracci indicated that they are convinced that