Determination of the Age of Bruises in Chicken Broilers

THE loss to the commercial broiler industry due to bruising accounts for many millions of dollars annually. If the age of these bruises could be easily ascertained, a means would then be available for assigning the responsibility for the losses involved and possibly developing incentives for minimizing such losses. At present, the determination of the age of poultry bruises is based on gross observations of the characteristic progression of color alterations in the damaged area. These color changes have been shown to vary considerably due to many physical and physiological factors (Hamdy et al., 1960). It has been reported (Hamdy et al., 1957) that a chemical test based on the presence of bilirubin, a bile pigment resulting from the hemoglobin degradation in bruised tissues, can be used to estimate the age of livestock bruises. The present work was carried out to examine the possible use of this color test for…