Studies of the Chick Edema Disease

Abstract

THE chick edema disease is a relatively new pathological entity first reported in 1957. The early reports of the syndrome, Anonymous (1957, 1958a, b, c), presented no analytical data on the body changes characteristic of the condition. Schmittle, Edwards and Morris (1958) reported that the disease resulted from feeding various rations and was not caused by a bacterial or viral agent. These workers were the first to describe the gross pathological appearance of chicks with the syndrome. Various workers, Ames et al. (1959), Brew et al. (1959), Friedman et al. (1959), Wooten and Alexander (1959), Harman et al. (1960) and Yartzoff et al. (1960), have attempted to chemically separate, purify and characterize the toxic agent. The first comprehensive study of the anatomical, biochemical and histological changes of the chick edema disease was reported by Allen (1961). He found that feeding a fat containing the toxic principle resulted in reduced…