Applied research note: Reliability in using live palpation scores to evaluate woody breast severity in commercial broilers

The broiler industry has observed an increase in the incidence and severity of myopathies in recent years, which has negatively affected meat quality and compromised consumer acceptance of fresh and processed products. Among these, a myopathy known as woody breast (WB) has become of concern to both the scientific community and the poultry industry, prompting numerous studies on the etiology of the myopathy. WB has been described as a disorder that causes hardening and discoloration of the chicken pectoralis major muscle, subsequently decreasing the meat quality. Palpation of the breast muscle of live birds has been used to estimate the presence and severity of woody breast in broiler populations. To assess its accuracy, this experiment aimed to evaluate how effectively the method can estimate the incidence and severity of WB pre-mortem. Furthermore, this study supports previous statements that demonstrate birds with WB are heavier in weight than those without WB. Our study provides insight into the reliability of using external palpations for scoring woody breast in live broilers. While the palpation method on live birds can be used to gain general information about breast scores, internal evaluation of WB scoring is needed to fully understand the incidence and severity of myopathy, as live scoring can be variable.