The incidence and associated risk factors affecting myopathies in broiler chickens in Lithuania

The objectives of this research were to highlight the main factors, which have relevant significance for etiology of myopathies and to assess the incidence of myopathies in a representative population of broilers raised in Lithuania. Eighteen flocks were evaluated to assess the incidence of musculus pectoralis major myopathies (PMM) (total 54,000 broilers) and dorsal cranial myopathy (DCM) (total 124,200 broilers). Thirteen flocks (total 19,500 broilers) were evaluated to find out deep pectoral myopathy (DPM) occurrence in Lithuania. Investigated parameters of each flock were: average broiler live body weight (BW) at slaughter, average slaughter age, treatment and seasons. A correlation analysis was used to measure the strength of the linear relationship between the investigated traits and incidence of these myopathies. Overall, the incidence of PMM in Lithuania was 18.19%. DCM and DPM were 5.16% and 0.27%, respectively. The percentage of PMM in flocks was strongly associated with average broiler live BW at slaughter (r=0.898, p<0.001) and age at slaughter (r=0.693, p<0.001). The percentage of PMM in flocks was negatively related with treatment of broilers (rs=-0.535, p<0.05). The percentage of DCM was positively associated with average broiler live BW at slaughter (r=0.537, p<0.05) and with seasons (rs=0.658, p<0.01). However, our study results revealed, that the analyzed parameters are not so important in DPM etiology. Furthermore, predisposing factors of PMM, DCM and DPM are different. These findings suggest that not only broiler's heavy weight and age at slaughter could have influence for etiology of myopathies.