Local modulation of skeletal growth and bone modeling in poultry.

Skeletal growth and bone modeling in poultry are regulated by complex interactions between the animal's genetic potential and a host of systemic and localized factors (growth factors and cytokines) influencing bone biology. The objective of these interactions is to orchestrate the achievement of bone architecture that balances functionally appropriate morphology with the skeleton's involvement in mineral homeostasis. Within this context, bone modeling in the growing animal represents an adaptive process that is distinct from bone remodeling, which is the term used to describe the resorption and formation of mineralized tissue that maintains skeletal mass and morphology in the adult. As many of the skeletal lesions that afflict poultry are the consequence of abnormalities in bone modeling, not bone remodeling, an appreciation of the differences between these two contrasting processes is a prerequisite for understanding the pathogenesis of skeletal lesions in poultry.