A histological study of post mortem changes in the skeletal muscle of the fowl (Gallus domesticus). I. The muscle fibres.

The changes in the histology of skeletal muscle post mortem have been studied with the light and electron microscopes in the pectoralis thoracica and iliotibialis muscles of the fowl (Gallus domesticus). The carcasses were stored at 40 degrees C and samples removed at various times post mortem. Kinking, contractures, transverse splitting and disintegration were seen in muscle fibres from post mortem muscle. The variation in time and frequency of occurrence of these was wide but no consistent difference between the pectoralis and iliotibialis muscles was found. An attempt was made to integrate the results from the light and electron microscopes to gain insight into the nature of the modifications occurring in the histology of post mortem muscle fibres.