Research note: Prospects for early detection of breast muscle myopathies by automated image analysis

White Striping (WS), Wooden Breast (WB) and Spaghetti Meat (SM) are documented breast muscle myopathies (BMM) affecting broiler chickens’ product quality, profitability and welfare. This study evaluated the efficacy of our newly developed deep learning-based automated image analysis tool for early detection of morphometric parameters related to BMM in broiler chickens. Male chicks were utilized, and muscle samples were collected on day 14 of rearing. Histological procedures, including microscopic scoring, blood vessel count, and collagen quantification, were conducted. The automated image analysis tool demonstrated reliability in evaluating myofiber size, conforming with manual histological measurements [demonstrated in a previous study by Dayan et al., (2023)] . A threshold for BMM detection was established by normalizing and consolidating myofiber diameter and area into a unified metric based on automated measurements, also termed as ‘relative myofiber size value’. Results show that severe myopathy broilers consistently exhibited lower relative myofiber size values, effectively detecting myopathy severity. Our study, aimed as proof of concept, underscores the potential of our automated image analysis tool as an early detection method for BMM.