Exudative diathesis chick

In 1956 selenium was identified (123) as an essential micronutrient iu nutrition. In conjunction with vitamin E, selenium is effective iu the prevention of muscular dystrophy iu animals. Sodium selenite is adrninistered to prevent exudative diathesis iu chicks, a condition iu which fluid leaks out of the tissues white muscle disease iu sheep and infertility iu ewes (see Eeed ADDITIVES). Selenium lessens the iacidence of pneumonia iu lambs and of premature, weak, and stillborn calves controls hepatosis dietetica iu pigs and decreases muscular inflammation iu horses. White muscle disease, widespread iu sheep and cattle of the selenium-deficient areas of New Zealand and the United States, is insignificant iu high selenium soil areas. The supplementation of animal feeds with selenium was approved by the U.S. EDA iu 1974 (see Eeed additives). Much of selenium s metaboHc activity results from its involvement iu the selenoproteia enzyme, glutathione peroxidase. 

To some extent the vitamin E requirement may be lessened by the presence in the diet of synthetic antioxidants and by selenium. Much evidence supports a relationship between the nutritional need for selenium and that for vitamin E. Lack of either causes muscular dystrophy in many animals as well as severe edema (exudative diathesis) in chicks. Since vitamin E-deficient rats have a low selenide (Se2 ) content, it has been suggested that vitamin E protects reduced selenium from oxidation.) Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), in turn, protects vitamin E. 

Observations on deficiency symptoms in the cardiovascular system were also made [29, 30]. In chicks, exudative diathesis, a condition in which plasma moves from the capillaries into surrounding, particularly subcutaneous, tissue, was studied and found to be associated with lipid peroxidation [31]. In cardiac muscle, a necrotizing myopathy was found in vitamin-E-deficient mice [32], rats [33], rabbits [34] and ruminants [35], Blood abnormalities, associated with increased susceptibility of erythrocytes to haemolysis, figure among reports of the effects of vitamin E deficiency [36, 37]. 

In growing chicks, a deficiency can result in (i) encephalomalacia or crazy chick disease (ii) exudative diathesis, an oedema caused by excessive capillary permeability or (iii) muscular dystrophy. Encephalomalacia occurs when the diet contains unsaturated fats that are susceptible to rancidity. Some antioxidants, in addition to vitamin E, are also effective against encephalomalacia. Exudative diathesis is prevented by dietary selenium, and muscular dystrophy is a complex disease influenced by vitamin E, selenium, and the... 

Cantor, A.H., Langevin, M.L., Noguchi, T., and Scott, M.L. 1975c. Efficacy of selenium in selenium compounds in feedstuffs and selenium compounds for prevention of exudative diathesis in chicks. J. Nutr. 105, 106-111. 

Studies with animals have revealed an interesting pattern of relahorLships involving Se and vitamin E nutrition. In chicks, experimentally induced deficiencies in both S5e and vitamin E result in exudative diathesis, muscular dystrophy, and pancreatic atrophy. The first two problems can be prevented by vitamin E... 

With regard to the nutritional aspects of selenium metabolism, the essentiality of this element was established in studies which demonstrated that a number of deficiency diseases " such as exudative diathesis in chicks and turkeys, necrotic liver degeneration in rats and swine and white muscle disease which is a nutritional type of muscular dystrophy often affecting young lambs and calves, could be overcome or prevented by administering small doses of selenium. 

While these studies were in progress, exudative diathesis, another disease in chicks, was described, and shown to be a consequence of vitamin E deficiency (Dam and Glavind, 1939a, b). 

The fact that autoxidation was going on in the adipose tissue of chicks suffering from exudative diathesis produced by cod liver oil (5%) was demonstrated by Dam and Oranados (1945a) by direct determination of... 

The next important development came when Torula yeast was used in place of casein in diets for the production of exudative diathesis in chicks (Scott et al., 1955 Bieri et al., 1957). 

Later we analyzed a number of commercial dried yeasts with respect to fat content and tested them for ability to produce exudative diathesis without added fat. One of these yeasts, Dried Flake Yeast (Distillers Company Ltd.), contained 4.4% of fatty acids but almost no polyenoic fatty acids. Only 0.6 % of the total fatty acids were dienoic. Fatty acids of higher degree of unsaturation were not present. When fed at the level of 40 or 60% of a fat-free, vitamin E-free diet it produced exudative diathesis in chicks, but at slower rate and to a lesser degree than Torula yeast (Dam et al., 1958a). 

A yellow-brown coloration of adipose tissue can be seen in chicks after the exudate produced by cod liver oil has been absorbed. It also occurs in the adipose tissue of rats fed cod liver oil, even though rats do not get exudative diathesis, and in yellow fat disease in mink (Mason and Hartsough, 1951 Lalor et al., 1951). 

Besides encephalomalacia and exudative diathesis, a third easily observable sign of vitamin E deficiency may be seen in chicks, viz., a form... 

In addition to muscular degeneration in rabbits and chicks, exudative diathesis in chicks, and brown uterus in rats, several other manifestations of vitamin E deficiency can be produced with suitable diets which do not contain fat e.g., in rats reproduction failure in females (Christensen et al., 1956b), Rose and Gyorgy s dialuric acid hemolysis (Christensen et al., 1956a), and fatal liver necrosis (Schwarz, personal communication). 

Several manifestations of vitamin E deficiency may occur w ith suitable diets, even when the diet does not contain polyunsaturated fatty acids. It is possible that their absence in the normal state is due to other functions of vitamin E than its effect as an antioxidant. This applies, e.g., to the exudative diathesis in chicks, originally believed to be dependent upon dietary polyunsaturated fat, and also to resorption gestation in female rats, liver degeneration and erythrocyte hemolysis in rats, muscular... 

B. Exudative Diathesis and Nutritional Muscular Dystrophy in Chicks... 

Although some similarities are observed in the tissues of chicks suffering from these diseases, it appears that no common metabolic defect can be held responsible for all three conditions, since various specific dietary changes unrelated to the vitamin E content of the diet can completely prevent one of the diseases without having any effect upon the other two. The most important of these are the prevention of encephalomalacia with synthetic antioxidants, the effectiveness of inorganic selenium in prevention of exudative diathesis, and the role of cystine in preventing muscular dystrophy. 

Exudative diathesis in chicks, depicted in Kig. 2 p. 626, is a severe edema produced liy a marki d increasii in capillary permeability. Dam and Glavind (1940) demonstrated the abnormally high capillary permeability by injecting trypan blue intravenously into normal chicks and chicks suffering... 

The effectiveness of selenium for prevention of exudative diathesis in chicks was reported simultaneously by Scott and associates (1957) and Stokstad et al. (1957) following the initial discovery by Schwarz and Foltz... 

Basal diet deficient in vitamin E contained approximately one-half the chick s requirement of methionine (0.2%), one-fifth the chick s requirement of cystine (0.05%). Ethoxyquin was added at level of 0.0125%, which prevented encephalomalacia sodium selenite at a level to provide 0.1 ppm of selenium prevented exudative diathesis. 

The difficulties encountered in determining the peroxide content in tissues should be kept in mind. Although polyunsaturated fatty acids accelerate the production of some lesions attributed to vitamin E deficiency, such as exudative diathesis and encephalo-malacia in chicks, they do not affect the reproductive functions in rats. Antioxidants cannot correct all of the pathological manifestations resulting from vitamin E deficiency. The alteration of the fetus and the testicles of vitamin E-deficient rats is not prevented by the administration of methylene blue to an animal maintained on a vitamin E-deficient diet. On the basis of such observations, it has sometimes been proposed that antioxidants do not replace vitamin E but spare the existing vitamin. Even if it is accepted that vitamin E acts by virtue of its antioxidant properties, the nature of the critical compounds that are oxidized in the deficiency remains to be elucidated. 

Vitamin E deficiency in chicks may lead to a munber of distinct diseases myopathy, encephalomalacia and exudative diathesis. In nutritional myopathy the main muscles affected are the pectorals, although the leg muscles also may be involved. Nutritional encephalomalacia, or crazy chick disease , is a condition in which the chick is imable to walk or stand and is accompanied by haemorrhages and necrosis of brain cells. Exudative diathesis is a vascular disease of chicks characterised by a generahsed oedema of the subcutaneous fatty tissues, associated with an abnormal permeabUity of the capUlary walls. Both selenium and vitamin E appear to be involved in nutritional myopathy and in exudative diathesis, but the element does not seem to be important in nutritional encephalomacia. It should be stressed that sele-niiun itself is a very toxic element and care is required in its use as a dietary additive. The toxic natine of seleniiun is discussed in Chapter 7. 

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