Echocardiographic evaluation of cardiac structure and function in broiler and Leghorn chickens

Abstract

This study was conducted to validate echocardiography in chickens, and to compare cardiac structure and function between broiler and Leghorn chickens. Diameters of the right and left ventricles, and thicknesses of the left ventricular free wall and the interventricular septum were measured echocardiographically in 5- and 7-wk-old chickens from both lines. Images were obtained from minimally restrained, standing birds using a 7.5 MHz probe placed in a parasternal position. End-systolic and end-diastolic echocardiographic measurements were compared with post-mortem measurements of the same variables. Comparisons resulted in correlation coefficients greater than 0.70 between in vivo (echocardiographic) and post-mortem measurements of the same variables, with post-mortem measurements more closely resembling end-diastolic echocardiographic measurements. After being normalized to body weight, post-mortem myocardial thicknesses, aortic and left ventricular diameters, heart weight at 5 wk of age, and left ventricular weight at 7 wk of age were smaller in broiler than in Leghorn chickens. Echocardiographic parameters, including ventricular wall thicknesses, ventricular diameters, and left ventricular fractional shortening, were also smaller in the broiler chicken. Right ventricular fractional shortening did not differ between the chicken lines. These results indicate that echocardiography is a useful noninvasive technique for in vivo evaluation of cardiac structure and function in the chicken, and that broiler chickens have a relatively smaller structural and functional heart than Leghorn chickens.

Does the right muscular atrioventricular valve in the avian heart perform two functions?

“…The RV epicardial boundary was discernible in 50% of the chickens examined. Similar difficulties were observed for broilers in another study, in which the authors reported a 30% success in obtaining of the RV thickness in these animals (Martinez et al, 1998). Noteworthy, there is the same limitation in echocardiography of the human RV, but in the case of the avian heart, this is the greater problem due to closest limits of the ultrasound window.…”

“…more closely resembled echocardiographic diastolic values (3.2 ± 0.9 vs 3.1 ± 0.31 mm). Previously it was shown that in Leghorn chickens there was a correlation between diastolic echocardiographic measurements and post-mortem ones (Martinez et al, 1998). At the end of diastole, the MV is pressed to the free wall, so its visualization was not possible (see Fig.…”

Effect of Slaughtering Age in Different Commercial Chicken Genotypes Reared According to the Organic System: 1. Welfare, Carcass and Meat Traits

“…Earlier studies affirm that muscular-skeletal development in fast-growing vs slow-growing birds exceeds the cardiovas-cular development (Martinez-Lemus et al, 1998); under this point of view, CN1 birds showed the highest heart percentage (0.41 to 0.44% carcass weight at 70 and 81 days, respectively).…”

Anatomical parameters of cardiopulmonary system in three different lines of chickens: further evidence for involvement in ascites syndrome

“…Therefore, the change in volumes of the relative thorax cavity (TV1 and TV3) from days 1 to 42 was lower in broiler chickens ('/9 to (/7%) compared with the layer ('/92 to 107%) and native ('/85 to 122%) birds (Figure 3b,d). -Lemus et al (1998) reported that, in comparison with Leghorn chickens, fast-growing broiler chickens had relatively smaller postmortem myocardial thicknesses, aortic and left ventricular diameters. Vidyadaran et al (1987) showed that the lungs of the adult domestic fowl are far less well-adapted anatomically for gas exchange compared with the non-galliform species.…”