Stress can impact the quality of chicken meat before the animal is processed, and scientists are now studying physiological stressors. Avian neuroscientists at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture probing the neural pathways for stress response have identified a new structure of neurons in the poultry brain.

Wayne Kuenzel, a Division of Agriculture poultry physiologist specializing in avian neuroendocrinology, said the newly discovered structure is a cluster of neurons that may be the starting point for some stress response signals. They are located in the hippocampal commissure, a structure located in the septum, a brain region directly above the hypothalamus.    MORE