Improving Poultry Meat Quality

Casey Owens

Novus International Professor of Poultry Science

Contact Casey Owens

The Problem

The American poultry industry has risen to the challenge of meeting consumer demand for more and bigger chicken meat, especially for breast meat. But that success has come at a cost as meat defects like woody breast that result in tough meat become more common. Poultry industry representatives report that such defects became serious enough to draw the industries attention since 2011 and have cost the poultry industry millions of dollars in lost yield from condemned and downgraded products. Woody breast defects alone costs U.S. poultry companies an estimated $200 million annually, said Casey Owens Hanning, the Novus International Professor of poultry science at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Poultry companies also express concerns that negative consumer experience with tough, defective meat products can drive customers to other companies or other meat products, having further impacts on consumer satisfaction and industry revenues.

The Work

Casey Owens Hanning, the Novus International Professor of poultry science at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, has been conducting research to understand and improve poultry meat quality for 21 years. In particular, she has been investigating the biological and genetic influences that lead to woody breast and other meat defects.

She collaborates with colleagues in the division’s Center of Excellence for Poultry Science to identify and understand the biological and genetic factors that contribute to meat quality defects and to find genetic markers that may help chicken breeders identify potential breeding interventions to improve muscle development. She has also discovered that environmental and stress conditions during production may exacerbate meat defects.

Meanwhile, Hanning focuses on designing tools that can help the poultry industry measure and assess meat quality and to detect new problems.

The Results

Hanning developed predictive models for detecting woody breast in broiler carcasses using image analysis of carcass features associated with the condition. That process earned a patent in 2020.

Poultry companies are using the knowledge base that Hanning has built to adjust their management practices, including breeding activities and production. Companies have adopted practices aimed at reducing stress in birds during production.

Poultry companies have recognized the value of Hanning’s research by committing to support her work. Cobb-Vantress has contributed money and equipment to upgrade the Division of Agriculture’s pilot processing plant, where Hanning conducts much of her research. Cooper, of Cobb-Vantress, for example, plans further investments in the pilot plant to support ongoing research by Hanning and other division researchers.

The Value

The Poultry Federation reports that the poultry industry provides more than 1.9 million jobs in the U.S. that pay $109 billion in wages and $495.1 billion in economic impact. In Arkansas, poultry is the leading agricultural industry, according to the Poultry Federation, providing more than 163,000 jobs and 6,500 poultry farms. In 2019, the poultry industry provided $4.4 billion to Arkansas’ total agriculture cash receipts. Broilers are the single biggest sector of the poultry industry in Arkansas, providing 42.2 percent of the state’s total agriculture cash receipts.

New tools and technologies that can help reduce meat defects can potentially save the poultry industry millions in lost revenues and provide chicken consumers with higher quality products and greater customer satisfaction.