Arkansas issued the following announcement on June 21.
Two poultry science graduate students placed first in the student competitions hosted by the U of A Department of Poultry Science during Poultry Science (POSC) Research Day on May 25.
The first POSC Research Day invited faculty, students and industry professionals to collaborate and share ideas about ongoing research surrounding water efficiency in the poultry industry. As a portion of the one-day event, students from the U of A were encouraged to present their own research in two competitions.
The winner of the oral presentation competition, Clay Maynard, said he felt it was important for him to share his research with some of the brightest minds in the poultry industry. His presentation, titled "Performance and Processing Characteristics of Male Ross 708 Broilers Supplemented with Guanidinoacetic Acid," covered a research study that looked at ways to alleviate woody breast in broilers.
Woody breast is a muscle myopathy that affects high breast yielding broilers. This causes a number of challenges for producers, including decreased yield due to lowered fillet quality and appearance. Restaurants have received complaints from customers about poor texture, and they have started requiring plants to sort fillets to limit the amount of woody breast they receive.
"The annual cost of woody breast in the industry is tremendous, and the cause of this myopathy remains undetermined," said Maynard, poultry science Ph.D. student. "However, as we continue to progress, numerous nutritional strategies have been utilized to reduce the occurrence of woody breast, with little success."
Maynard suggested that the research study he presented showed a different trend, and that is why he felt it necessary to present this during the POSC Research Day. Varying levels of guanidinoacetic acid were supplemented to regular broiler diets.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Arkansas
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