Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-based untargeted metabolomics analysis reveals circulating biomarkers related to wooden breast myopathy in broilers: a preliminary study

Approaches for the diagnosis of wooden breast (WB) myopathy in live birds are urgently required before applying intervention strategies to reduce occurrence and severity for the poultry industry. The objective of this study was to characterize the serum metabolic profiles in male broilers affected by WB and to identify biomarkers related to this myopathy. Broilers were categorized into normal (CON) and WB groups based on gross scoring and histological evaluation. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolo-mics, multivariate analysis, and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis revealed a clear separation between CON and WB. A total of 73 significantly differ-ent (P < 0.05) metabolites with 17 upregulated and 56 downregulated were identified, which were mainly involved in pathways of alanine, aspartate, and gluta-mate metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, and tau -rine and hypotaurine metabolism. By using the nested cross-validation function of random forest analysis, 9 significantly altered (P < 0.05) metabolites (cerotinic acid, arabitol, phosphoenolpyruvate, terephthalic acid, cis-gondoic acid, N-acetyl-d-glucosamine, 4-hydroxy-mandelic acid, caffeine, and xanthurenic acid) were iden-tified as biomarkers with an excellent discriminant performance for WB myopathy. Collectively, this study provides new insights for a deeper understanding of the pathogenesis and provides metabolites as biomarkers for diagnostic utilization of WB myopathy.

Automated summary

The aim of this study was to identify biomarkers for the diagnosis of wooden breast (WB) myopathy in male broilers by characterizing the serum metabolic profiles using metabolomics analysis. A clear separation was observed between normal (CON) and WB groups based on the analysis of 73 significantly different metabolites. Nine significantly altered metabolites were identified as excellent discriminant biomarkers for WB myopathy. This study provides new insights into the pathogenesis of WB and offers potential biomarkers for diagnostic purposes.