White Striping in Cornish X??

[springvalley123]

I read this article concerning the (mainly) breast meat of the fast-growing hybrids we get in grocery stores. Apparently when they grow so fast, some of the breast meat gets fibrous tissue and fat because their young fast growing bodies can't manufacture enough protein, fast enough to keep up with their growth. I don't know if it would be a problem in anyone's hatchery-purchased or home-bred stock, especially if you mitigate by feeding only during the day, etc. Note, the article has some quotes by a "humane league", I don't mean to set off anything related to that, but I think the topic of meat quality based on fast growth is worthwhile for all of us BYC chicken raisers.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_m...AODj+luK8lPB6265wSYua5s3IfZVMS5CXsHofqXSRSQ==

 

[Molpet]

Looks like someone asked about this last year. Nobody replied.
Thread 'Cornish X White Striping?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cornish-x-white-striping.1356315/

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Two things. One, Epoch Times is a Rag with a known, extreme, and pervasive bias.

Two, you may find this instructive. Tl;dr: There's a genetic component, an age component, and as you likely guessed, a VERY significant feed component (which is more pronounced in older birds, as you would reasonably expect).

 

[springvalley123]

Looks like someone asked about this last year. Nobody replied.
Thread 'Cornish X White Striping?' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cornish-x-white-striping.1356315/

for some reason that didn't come up anywhere near the top, if at all in my search for "white striping", just a bunch of hits as if I'd searched for "white". It makes sense, as the Tyson's etc strive to harvest their birds earlier and earlier. Would you recognize this happening while you were feeding the birds, or as the name implies would you just have to wait til harvest, and notice more fat in the breasts?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

While the whole study I linked is instructive, for those who want the cliff notes, these are the most important paragraphs:

[...] Also, the occurrence of severe WS was higher in Ross 308 chickens than in Cobb 500 chickens (25.9% vs 7.41%), and up to 40% of medium and heavy broiler chickens raised under commercial conditions had WS conditions (Lorenzi et al., 2014).

Feeding a high-energy diet produced birds with higher body weight and accomplished lower feed conversion ratios but increased the incidence of WS breast fillets. Higher levels of lipids and lower amounts of protein in diets also increased the occurrence of WS in broilers (Kuttappan et al., 2009). Bauermeister et al. (2009) reported a higher incidence in broilers processed at an older age (8 wks old) than a younger age (6 wks old) because of the higher body weight at older ages. More than half of the broilers are processed at older ages currently (>8 wks), and the meats are deboned and used for portioning and further processing (Owens, 2018). So, WS in broiler breast fillets could affect the poultry meat market significantly and result in higher economic losses.

The occurrence of WS in broilers was reduced by controlling the growth trajectory through feed reduction during the rearing period (Meloche et al., 2018b). Restricting feed from 13 to 21 d of age was effective in controlling muscle fiber degeneration, but too early feed restriction (first two-week post-hatching) had adverse effects on the growth of broilers (Kuttappan et al., 2012a). During the re-alimentation period, however, previously restricted birds showed a compensatory growth and the effects of feed restriction disappeared (Trocino et al., 2015). The broiler line with high ultimate pH had a higher incidence of moderate and severe WS than the low ultimate pH lines regardless of the sex (Alnahhas et al., 2016; Muldahl et al., 2015; Petracci et al., 2013).

Essentially, if you don't want white stripping in your CX, pick Cobb 500 line birds, feed high protein not high corn, begin feed restrictions between week two and three, process young (6-8 weeks) - and finally, lower Ph is better. (Management/Feed practices to adjust Ph in the flesh of birds is not something I've researched - you are on your own there to pursue it. I don't raise meaties anymore).

 

[Folly's place]

Better yet, raise the slower growing 'real chickens' like Freedom rangers or other red ranger types.
Mary