CERTAIN TEXTURAL PROPERTIES OF CHICKEN MEAT, INVESTIGATED THROUGH HISTOLOGY AND PHOTONIC MICROSCOPY TECHNIQUES

Abstract

This study is included within a wide range of researches regarding poultry meat quality, consisting in some comparative researches referring to the sensorial features of the skeletal musculature as well as to the nutritional value of the meat produced by several modern broiler brands: Cobb 500, Ross 308, Shaver Starbro, Hybro-PG. The results in the paper reveal some of the poultry muscles histological parameters: myocytes (muscle fibers) thickness and cross-section area, muscular fibers density, and, finally, the proportion of main tissues (pure muscular and connective) in whole muscle structure. 100 broilers (50♂ + 50♀), selected from a shelter accommodating 9500 Cobb 500 chickens of 42 days old, served as biological material in order to elect the samples from five representative muscles: Pectoralis profundis et superficialis, Biceps brachii, Semimembranosus, Gastrocnemius medialis. The tissue samples were used to obtain histological smears on cross-section, which were then analyzed using photonic microscopy. White muscles (breast fillet) were found to have the highest values for the myocytes’ thickness (41.11μ), while the contractile cells of the red muscles were thinner (the thinnest within the brachial biceps – 27.9μ) and more dense per surface unit (≈1062 myocytes/mm² of muscle). The highest proportion of pure muscular tissue has been found in males’ Pectoralis superficialis muscles (65.22%).