Adipose tissue cellularity and growth characteristics of unselected and selected broilers: implications for the...

Chicks from large and small eggs were used to increase body weight range within samples of unselected Athens-Canadian (AC) and commercial Cobb (C) broilers. At 54 days of age, representatives of each sex and broiler stock obtained from the large and small eggs were killed. Indices of whole body, muscle, fat, and bone growth were taken. Samples of abdominal fat were fixed with osmium tetroxide for electronic quantification of adipocyte number and size distribution. Broiler stock, egg size, and sex affected all indices of muscle and bone growth on an absolute basis, but only broiler stock significantly affected abdominal fat pad development. Muscle and fat weight, expressed as a proportion of body weight, were larger in C broilers. Abdominal adipocyte number was greater in C than AC (126.0 +/- 10.0 vs. 90.9 +/- 7.7 million, P less than .01), but the greater adiposity of C was associated with an increase in adipocyte size. If the mean adipocyte volume of C (120.4 +/- 8.5 pl) was reduced to the mean adipocyte volume of AC (53.8 +/- 6.5 pl), proportional weight of the abdominal pad of C would have been smaller than proportional pad weight of AC. The problem of excessive abdominal fat deposition in the selected broiler stock appears related to factors that affect control of adipocyte size and body composition.