Neuromusgular studies of turkeys with trienbolone acetate‐induced and naturally occurring “leg weakness”

1. In vivo sciatic nerve gastrocnemius muscle preparations were made from 14‐ to 18‐week‐old normal turkeys and from those with naturally occurring or trienbolone acetate (TA)‐induced “leg weakness”.

2. Preparations from leg weakness cases displayed neither accelerated muscle fatigue nor decreased nerve conduction velocities as compared with control preparations.

3. The muscles of the TA‐treated turkeys but not of those with naturally occurring leg weakness were hyperexcitable relative to those of controls.

4. Post‐tetanic potentiation of preparations from both naturally occurring and experimentally‐induced cases of leg weakness was less than that of control preparations, both before and after partial neuromuscular blockade, significantly so at the lower pulse frequencies used.

5. It is tentatively suggested that the last finding might be of significance in explaining the clinical signs of leg weakness and might be associated with a disordered calcium metabolism.     

Effects of high inclusion rates of salseed meal in the diet of chicks

1. Starter diets containing either maize or salseed meal to replace the maize were fed to chicks over a period of 2 weeks.

2. Growth rate, food intake, food utilisation and proportion of dietary nitrogen retained were much poorer in chicks receiving salseed meal.

3. The chicks receiving salseed meal developed pathological lesions in liver and kidney.

4. The red blood cell count, white blood cell count, haemoglobin concentration and packed cell volume of the chicks receiving salseed meal were lower than those of chicks receiving maize.

5. The apparent metabolisable energy value of salseed meal was determined as 6.83 MJ/kg.