QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF CHICK CHORIOALLANTOIC MEMBRANE VASCULARISATION AS PREDICTOR OF BROILER HEART DEVELOPMENT

摘要

In order to meet consumer needs and stay commercially viable the poultry industry has been producing increasingly fast-growing broilers with high muscle to bone ratio. Through genetic selection, there has been a 50% improvement in feed utilization efficiency and the growth rate has increased by more than 400% over the last 60 years. Due to this high production efficiency, some undesirable traits such as pulmonary hypertension syndrome (PHS) or, ascites, have arisen. Ascites is the result of increased cardiac output subsequent to increased oxygen demand, low oxygen availability, increased pulmonary resistance and heart valvular insufficiency which culminates in right ventricular dilation and failure.