Physiological effects of hyperprotein diets with the addition of Eisenia foetida in broilers. Proposal for a model for heart disease

Abstract

Proposing animal models that allow predicting results in humans becomes critical when the analogies in physiology between both entities are reviewed. About heart disease, the heart rate in humans is more similar to that of chickens than that of the mouse, rat or other mammalian models generally used to study this disease. In the present work, the ethology on the attraction of chickens to earthworms as a food source was reviewed, in addition hematological, organ and urological parameters were measured in chickens fed with double and triple the protein percentage supplied with Eisenia foetida live added to the feed. commercial for the Cobb500 line. The results show a marked attraction depending on the nutritional status of the birds for Eisenia foetida and differences in hematological parameters, but not for urological parameters. The morphological characteristics of the heart showed a clear association between three times the protein load in the food and cardiac damage in 2 of 7 animals fed during 7 weeks of study. The present work represents the first contribution with the animal model approach in chickens to study cardiac damage and its possible prediction for humans.