Changes with age (from 0 to 37 D) in tibiae bone mineralization, chemical composition and structural organization in broiler chickens Sánchez-Rodríguez, Estefania Benavides Reyes, Cristina Torres, Cibele Domínguez Gasca, Nazaret García Ruíz, Ana I. González López, Santiago Rodríguez Navarro, Alejandro Broiler Tibiae Bone quality Osteoporosis Growth disorders Broiler chickens have an extreme physiology (rapid growth rates) that challenges the correct bone mineralization, being an interesting animal model for studying the development of bone pathologies. This work studies in detail how the mineralization, chemistry, and structural organization of tibiae bone in broiler chickens change with age during the first 5 wk (37 D) from hatching until acquiring the final weight for slaughter. During the early growth phase (first 2 wk), the rapid addition of bone tissue does not allow for bone organic matrix to fully mineralize and mature, and seems to be a critical period for bone development at which bone mineralization cannot keep pace with the rapid growth of bones. The low degree of bone mineralization and large porosity of cortical bone at this period might be responsible of leg deformation and/or other skeletal abnormalities commonly observed in these birds. Later, cortical bone porosity gradually decreases and the cortical bone became fully mineralized (65%) at 37 D of age. At the same time, bone mineral acquires the composition of mature bone tissue (decreased amount of carbonate, higher crystallinity, Ca/P = 1.68). 2019-12-13T10:01:01Z 2019-12-13T10:01:01Z 2019 journal article Sanchez-Rodriguez, E., Benavides-Reyes, C., Torres, C., Dominguez-Gasca, N., Garcia-Ruiz, A. I., Gonzalez-Lopez, S., & Rodriguez-Navarro, A. B. (2019). Changes with age (from 0 to 37 D) in tibiae bone mineralization, chemical composition and structural organization in broiler chickens. Poultry science, 98(11), 5215-5225. http://hdl.handle.net/10481/58293 10.3382/ps/pez363 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/es/ open access Atribución-NoComercial 3.0 España Oxford University Press