Morphology of breast and thigh muscles of Red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus spadiceus), Malaysian village chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) and commercial broiler chicken

Abstract

In most animals, myofibers number gets established before birth and postnatal growth is due to muscle hypertrophy, with very little contribution from muscle hyperplasia. The muscle myofibers exhibit different contractile, metabolic, physiological, chemical and morphological characteristics but the interaction between these factors and their outcome is not fully understood. Since, there is lack of literature regarding the skeletal muscle morphology of Red jungle fowl (RJ) and Malaysian village chicken (VC), therefore, the present study was undertaken with the aim to evaluate the morphology of skeletal muscle of Red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus Spadiceus) and Malaysian Village Chicken (Gallus gallus Domesticus) and commercial broiler chicken. A total of 150 unsexed birds consisting of 50 Red jungle fowl (RJ), 50 Malaysian village chicken (VC) and 50 commercial broiler (CB) were used in this study. Pectoralis major and bicep femoris were analyzed at the age of 1, 10, 20, 56 and 120 days post hatch. The number of muscle fibers in the breast and thigh muscles increased as the age advanced and the slow growing birds (RJ and VC) had higher Type I muscle fibers in breast and thigh muscles than fast growing CB. The percentage of Type 1 muscle fibers increased as the age advanced due to prolonged activity and also the type of muscle fibers changed throughout the age and activity. The importance of muscle fiber type changes is applicable to determine the future production of birds especially with regard to better quality meat of VC and RJ.