Dietary supplementation with carnosine reduces the prevalence of breast muscle myopathies without altering performance, meat yield or quality in broiler chickens.

Abstract

Breast muscle myopathies such as White striping and Wooden breast represent a major challenge for the poultry industry due to the deterioration of breast meat quality induced by these myopathies. Previous research has demonstrated that oxidative stress and subsequent oxidative damage in the Pectoralis major muscle were predisposing factors for the development of breast muscle myopathies. More specifically, research has shown that myopathic muscle content of histidine-containing dipeptides such as carnosine that is well-known for its antioxidant properties was almost entirely depleted, exposing the muscle to oxidative stress and predisposing it to the development of myopathies. The aim of the present study was thus to investigate the effect of dietary carnosine supplementation on growth, meat yield, meat quality and the prevalence of breast muscle myopathies. To achieve this, a total of 1&#xa0;080 1-day-old male Ross 308 chicks were distributed into two treatment groups in a randomized complete block design with 12 replicates per treatment. The experimental groups included a basal diet and the same basal diet supplemented with 500&#xa0;mg of carnosine/kg that were fed from d 1 to d 35. The data analysis revealed that apart from a slightly lower (P&#xa0;=&#xa0;0.03) BW at d 21 in the carnosine group compared to the control, final weight, growth and feed conversion were not influenced by the experimental diet. Similarly, carcass weight, carcass yield, yield of carcass cuts and technological quality traits of breast meat did not differ between groups. However, carnosine supplementation was associated with a reduction of the prevalence of White striping (P&#xa0;<&#xa0;0.001), Wooden breast (P&#xa0;<&#xa0;0.001) and the co-occurrence of these two myopathies (P&#xa0;<&#xa0;0.001). Moreover, carnosine supplementation increased (P&#xa0;<&#xa0;0.001) the antioxidant potential of breast muscles while malonaldehyde and carbonyl concentrations remained similar in the experimental group relative to the control group. In conclusion, carnosine supplementation provided promising results with regard to breast muscle myopathies. Further research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the effect of carnosine on these myopathies.