Effect of dietary factors on the responses of chicks to corticosterone injections |
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Authors: | I Bartov |
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Affiliation: | Department of Poultry Science , Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center , Bet Dagan , 50250 , Israel |
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Abstract: | Corticosterone-injected chicks fed on a diet based on sorghum gained less weight and accumulated more hepatic fat than chicks treated similarly and fed on a diet based on maize. The retention of nitrogen and dry matter and the apparent metabolisable energy of these diets were not affected by type of grain, either in corticosterone-injected or in untreated birds. A slight methionine deficiency in the maize diet resulted in an additional increase in the concentration of hepatic lipids in corticosterone-injected chicks. However, hepatic lipid concentration was not affected by either a deficiency or an excess of methionine in the diet based on sorghum. The dietary fat concentration of isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets and the energy concentration of diets containing similar energy-to-protein ratios did not affect the response of the chicks to corticosterone. There was a negative correlation between the relative weight gain of corticosterone-treated chicks and the relative hepatic fat content. The latter was positively correlated with relative abdominal fat pad size. |
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