The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of Chinese herbal medicine on blood profiles, muscle fatty acid, free amino acid and inosine composition in Wenchang chickens (the Chinese local breed). One hundred twenty, one-day-old female Wenchang chickens were randomly distributed into two dietary treatments in five replicates, each containing twelve birds for a period of 135 days. The d...

The major component of a given muscle is the constituent muscle fibres. Lean growth and ultimate muscle mass are therefore largely determined by the number of muscle fibres and the size of those fibres. During myogenesis, myoblasts develop from mesenchymal precursor cells by proliferation and myogenic commitment. Myoblasts subsequently fuse to form multinucleated myofibres. Postnatal growth of ...

Poultry meat production has been very dynamic over the last decade and now occupies the second place in the world just after pork. At the same time, the marketing of poultry has been greatly diversified: if in the sixties in the USA only 17% of broilers were sold as parts or further processed products, it represented more than 90% in 1998 (Mandava and Hoogenkamp, 1999). The same trends are obse...

this study aims to compare anatomies of madagascar chickens (indigenous race and starbro strain). with 8,262 individuals of either indigenous races or starbro strain chickens raised in a suburban environment, the weights of different pieces of cut as well as the live weights before slaughter were determined. results showed that breast development presents a positive linear relationship with thi...

Avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J), an exogenous avian retrovirus, is thought to have evolved by recombination with the highly identical env gene of the endogenous avian retrovirus EAV-HP. Embryonic expression of EAV-HP env has been suggested to be associated with the induction of immunological tolerance, a feature observed in a significant proportion of meat-type chickens infected with AL...

Genetic selection for enhanced growth rate in meat-type chickens (Gallus domesticus) is usually accompanied by excessive adiposity, which has negative impacts on both feed efficiency and carcass quality. Enhanced visceral fatness and several unique features of avian metabolism (i.e., fasting hyperglycemia and insulin insensitivity) mimic overt symptoms of obesity and related metabolic disorders...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of 2 isoenergetic growing diets with different CP (17 vs. 23%) on the performance and breast meat quality of 2 lines of chicken divergently selected for abdominal fatness [i.e., fat and lean (LL) lines]. Growth performance, breast and abdominal fat yields, breast meat quality parameters (pH, color, drip loss), and muscle glycogen storage at death ...