Fig. 3

Gross pathological changes of the neck from a commercial broiler showing clinical signs of severe cervical spine deformity. Noteworthy are skeletal changes in the specimen with intact muscular anatomy shown in topical view (a) and cervical spine following removal of soft tissue (b). In order to facilitate removal of soft tissue, the freshly extracted neck was boiled in water, and the muscle tissue was carefully separated from the bone while paying attention to avoid damage to intervertebral ligaments. This technique allowed us to extract skeletal structures of the neck with totally preserved anatomical integrity of the cervical vertebrae column