Nutritional muscular dystrophy in broiler thigh muscles: pathological analysis of a problem in the field

Objective. This study aims to use histopathologic method to investigate nutritional muscular dystrophy in broilers due to vitamin E deficiency. Materials and methods. Tissue samples taken from 20 dead chicks and total 28 blood samples sent by taking from diseased also eight chicks were analyzed. The amount of vitamin E determined in feed analysis was found to be 5% less than the amount declared to be present in the feed ration. Results. The average amount of α-tocopherol in blood serums was measured as 0.285 μg/g. Plasma calcium and phosphorus levels were found to be high, whereas sodium, potassium, and magnesium levels were found to be normal levels. Histopathologically, nutritional muscular dystrophy was defined in 18 of 20 chicks (90%). In the histopathologic examination of muscular sections, varying degrees of hyaline degenerations, necrosis, mineralization, lipidosis, and mononuclear cell infiltrations were observed. Conclusions. It was determined that when the fat content of the ration was increased, vitamin and mineral levels, particularly vitamin E, changed within the ration content, and the health of the chicks deteriorated, resulting in histopathologic damages in different organ tissues. The study concludes that the poultry farming industry should attach importance to feed management systems for chick's the proper and healthy feeding.