Influence of Oat Fractions on Diethylstilbestrol-Induced Aortic Ruptures of Turkeys

Abstract

BEALL et al. (1963) demonstrated that treatment of turkeys with diethylstilbestrol (D.E.S.) can cause the development of aortic ruptures. As a result of another study of Simpson and Harms (1966) it was suggested that such aortic rhexis resulted from the hyperlipemia and aortic atherosclerosis that followed D.E.S. treatments. Previously Simpson and Harms (1964) had reported that the incidence of D.E.S.-induced aortic ruptures could be altered by dietary composition. Higher mortality resulted when either a 16.1% protein diet lacking oats and animal fat or a 24.7% protein diet containing animal fat but lacking oats were fed, as compared with a 19.1% protein diet containing whole ground oats and no added animal fat. Fisher and Griminger (1967), in an experiment involving the feeding of a hypercholesterolemic diet to chicks, found that ground oats, oat hulls, and whole ground oats had a plasma cholesterol lowering effect. Thus, recognizing the influence of feeding of…