USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation announce the completion of a funded research project at the University of California, Davis, in which researchers examined the occurrence of white striping in broilers during the growth process.

The research was made possible in part by an endowing Foundation gift from Simmons Foods and is part of the Association’s comprehensive research program encompassing all phases of poultry and egg production and processing. A brief summary of the completed project is shown below. A complete report, along with information on other Association research, may be obtained through USPOULTRY’s website. The project summary is as follows.

Project #713: Examining the roles of macrophages and vascular inflammation in broiler white striping

(Dr Michael J Mienaltowski and Dr J Annie King, Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis)

Dr Michael Mienaltowski and Dr Annie King, at the University of California, Davis, recently completed a research project aimed at gaining knowledge into white striping disease by following broilers fed a commercial diet from hatching to market weight. An integrative analysis was performed over four levels (eg, whole bird, pectoralis muscle tissue, cells within the tissue, and molecular biological processes) to better define the causes of white striping occurring during the growth process. From the findings thus far, the researchers have determined that future projects should focus on interventions at weeks 2-4 of growth in the broiler to reverse white blood cell infiltration in the muscle. In the long-term, these findings help to advance our understanding of the progression of white striping.

The research summary can be found on the USPOULTRY website. Information on other Association research may also be obtained by visiting the USPOULTRY website, www.uspoultry.org.