Effects of food restriction or delayed photostimulation on ovarian follicle number, plasma oestradiol concentration and vaginal collagen content in male-line turkeys

1. An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that severe food restriction throughout the onset of lay or delaying photostimulation by 5 weeks would decrease the number of ovarian hierarchical follicles in male-line turkeys. It was proposed that a decrease in the number of hierarchical follicles would lower plasma oestradiol concentration and be associated with higher vaginal collagen content and a lower propensity to prolapse of the oviduct. 2. Five weeks after photostimulation, neither restriction to 63% of ad libitum body weight nor delayed onset of photostimulation had any significant effect on follicle number, plasma oestradiol concentration or vaginal collagen content. 3. It was concluded that neither food restriction nor delayed photostimulation can be used to control the over-development of the ovarian hierarchy in male-line turkeys.