Body Conformation and “Breast Blisters” in Market Turkeys ,

O’NEIL (1943) suggested that the term “breast blister” not be used in scientific literature, but that the term “keel bursae” be used to identify the fluid filled node on the keel of a bird. However, the term “breast blister” has persisted in the literature, so it is used in this paper to describe any abnormal tissue on the breast of a turkey that will be removed by the federal inspector during processing, causing the bird to be downgraded. Such downgrading results in serious economic loss to both producers and processors. Bird (1944), in working with Barred Plymouth Rock chickens, found that breast blisters (keel bursae) protected against what otherwise might have become a more serious injury from pressure exerted by the keel of relatively deep bodied birds against the roost during roosting. He further concluded that freedom from blisters in rapidly growing birds can be expected only in strains that…