Muscle metabolism and meat quality abnormalities

In the past decades, the growing demand for poultry meat has led to progressive improvements in genetic selection to produce fast-growing broilers; however, these methods have induced the appearance of several spontaneous, idiopathic muscle abnormalities along with an increased susceptibility to stress-induced myopathies such as deep pectoral myopathy, pale, soft, and, exudative syndrome, and more recently muscle-growth-related abnormalities such as white-striping, wooden breast, and spaghetti meat. This chapter evaluates the consequences of genetic selection on muscle traits and describes the relevance and effects of the major breast abnormalities on the nutritional, technological, and sensorial characteristics of meat.