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“Wing Rap” by Dr. Teresa Morishita Question: I work at a local butcher shop and was splitting the turkey carcasses to sell the half-breasts. I noticed that the keel bone was discolored and I haven’t noticed this before. Is this normal? Answer: It appears that the keel bone is discolored due to an infection. Normal bone is whitish in color and is composed of a fine network of bony structures called trabeculae. If this bone is red, then that may be normal as it is an active marrow site and blood cells are being produced there. The picture you sent indicates that there is a brown area within a red area and this appears to be a walled-off lesion since the bone marrow looks discolored in a distinctly demarcated area. As a further note, I would not eat the meat since the band-saw cut through the abscess and this may have aerosolized the bacteria on the carcass. Teresa Y. Morishita, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACPV is a Professor and Extension Poultry Veterinarian in the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine. She is a board-certified poultry veterinarian and is also the Director of the Avian Disease Investigation Laboratory at The Ohio State University. She welcomes your questions and invites you to contact her at the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, The Ohio State University, 1920 Coffey Road, Columbus, OH 43210 or contact her through this website at www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/poultry/ |