IN-VIVO ASSESSMENT OF BREAST MUSCLE, ABDOMINAL FAT AND TOTAL FAT VOLUME IN MEAT-TYPE CHICKENS BY MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING

Measurements were performed on commercial broiler chickens by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tomography. A total of 72 chickens were scann ed at the age of 6, 7, 8, 10, 16 and 20 weeks. MRI scans based on spin echo sequence were taken in the three orthogonal planes. The volume o f the pectoral muscles increased from 259 cm(3) to 1035 cm(3) in males and from 250 cm(3) to 875 cm(3) in females between 6 and 20 weeks of age. Abdominal fat volume increased from 18.9 cm(3) to 153.2 cm(3) in males and from 19.3 cm(3) to 267.0 cm(3) in females between 7 and 20 w eeks of age. Total body fat volume increased from 129 cm(3) to 557 cm( 3) in males and from 171 cm(3) to 1321 cm(3) in females between 6 and 20 weeks of age. The correlation coefficients between the total volume of fat pixels and the amount of abdominal fat determined in the coron al plane by MRI were 0.85 and 0.95 in the male and female sex, respect ively. Changes found in the pectoral muscles (mm. pectorales) as well as in total and abdominal fat volume were in close agreement with diss ection data obtained at the slaughterhouse and with laboratory data ba sed on the measurement of total body chemical composition in both sexe s. This MRI method can be a good complement to computed tomography (CT ) scanning in the transversal plane.