Factors regulating bone maturity and strength in poultry

USDA Agricultural Research Service, Poultry Science Center, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville 72701, USA. nrath@comp.uark.edu

Adolescent meat-type poultry and cage layers exhibit a high incidence of bone problems that include bone weakness, deformity, breakage, and infection and osteoporosis-related mortalities. These problems include economic and welfare issues. To improve bone quality in poultry, it is essential to understand the physiological basis of bone maturity and strength in poultry. A complex array of factors that include structural, architectural, compositional, physiological, and nutritional factors interactively determine bone quality and strength. Bone is approximately 70% mineral, 20% organic, and 10% water. Collagen is the major organic matrix that confers tensile strength to the bone, whereas hydroxyapatite provides compressional strength. In recent years, the roles of different collagen crosslinks have been shown to be important in the increase of bone mechanical strength. Similarly, age-related glyco-oxidative modifications of collagen have been shown to increase the stiffness of collagen. These posttranslational modifications of matrix can affect bone quality as it would be affected by the changes in the mineralization process. Our studies show that the growth in the tibia continued until 25 wk of age, which correlated with the increase in the content of hydroxylysylpridinoline (HP) and lysylpyridinoline (LP), the collagen crosslinks. The tibia from 5-wk-old chicks were strong but brittle because of low collagen crosslinks and high mineral content. Bone maturity may relate to its crosslink content. Compared to crosslink content, bone density and ash content showed moderate increases during growth. The bones from younger turkeys were more susceptible to corticosteroid-induced stunting of growth, which also resulted in decreased bone strength. This review discusses how different factors can compromise bone strength by reducing growth, altering shape, affecting mineralization, and affecting collagen crosslinking.

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