Parenteral Versus Oral Treatment of Exudative Diathesis in Chicks

Abstract

Selenium as selenite when added as a supplement to torula yeast diets prevents exudative diathesis (ED) in chicks (Patterson et al., 1957). Oral therapy response using selenium and/or d α-tocopherol may not be consistent or predictable due to interferring factors in the digestive system. Parenteral therapy would avoid these factors and should give a more consistent, predictable, and optimal response. The following experiment was designed to test this hypothesis.One day old White Leghorn cockerels22H. C. Burns Pharmaceuticals, Oakland, California. Contains 0.25 mg. Se as Na2SeO3 and 68 I.U. vitamin E per ml. were numbered at random, weighed, and placed on the torula yeast basal ration of Nesheim and Scott (1958). Thirty-five (Group 5A) of these chicks received 0.4 ml. of L-Se33Hy-Line, Jenks Hatchery, Tangent, Oregon. subcutaneously. All chicks were weighed individually at weekly intervals until signs of ED appeared (18 days old). They then were distributed at random among experimental groups (Table 1). Individual weighing was continued thrice weekly for three weeks at which time they were necropsied and the incidence …