My understanding is that a fatigue-resistant slow-twitch muscle called Type IIA (or is it B?) is an intermediate between Type I and II (slow/fast twitch) muscle fibers in some species (no idea if it holds true for gallinaceous birds). However, I thought the intermediate type was capillary rich (i.e., red). And I'm dragging this up from the depths of my memory...



Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 09:16:01 -0800
From: LevineB at bsd405.org
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] White meat versus dark question






Tweeters,
Thought I?d post this question that was asked of me from a high school Biology class I teach. Why do turkeys have both white and dark meat? My understanding has always been that dark meat has more myoglobin proteins that transfer oxygen more efficiently to the areas where muscles are used more frequently. Hence this would explain why the legs of birds like turkeys and chickens would be dark meat and their breast meat would be white. But, a friend who is a hunter has told me that doesn?t fit for some gallinaceous birds like quail, or chukar which have only lighter colored meat.
Anyone have an answer for the group?

Barry Levine
Seattle
levineb at fastmail.fm

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