Quantitation of Intestinal d-Xylose Absorption in Normal and Reovirus-Inoculated Turkeys

Abstract

A micromethod was modified to quantitate intestinal D-xylose absorption in young and extremely small birds. This test was performed in control and cloned-reovirus-inoculated turkey poults to investigate intestinal absorptive function. Absorption peaks and curves for control poults closely resembled those observed in normal humans. Poult groups absorbed significantly less D-xylose at 24 and 72 hours (P less than 0.0001 and P less than 0.0008, respectively) but not at 120 hours (P = 0.3178) after receiving a single oral dose of cloned reovirus. The modified D-xylose absorption test is suitable for experimental and clinical determination of absorptive function of the small intestine in the fowl.

Pathogenesis of rotavirus infection in turkey poults

“…Similar data were reported by Goodwin et al (1984) after infection of poults with reovirus. It is of considerable interest to note that statistical analysis of the data also suggested an influence of infection on the clearance of D-xylose from the plasma.…”

“…The data on the absorption of D-xylose were analysed in two stages: 1) the SAS procedure for nonlinear squares analysis of a two-compartment model (from the intestinal tract into the plasma compartment) assuming that infection altered only the absorption (Goodwin et al, 1984) and 2) allowing infection to alter half-life parameters for the clearance of the D-xylose from both the intestinal tract and the plasma. The estimated time (TA) required to achieve 50% absorption from the intestinal tract was calculated for each poult.…”

“…Intestinal D-xylose absorption was determined essentially with the microphloroglucinol technique of Eberts et al (1979) as modified by Goodwin et al (1984). Briefly, 2 ml of phloroglucinol (1, 3, 5-trihydroxybenzene, Sigma Chemical Company, St. Louis, MO) was added to 20 /il of turkey plasma and heated for 4 min at 100°C.…”

“…The analysis of the data can become complicated if the clearance of D-xylose from the plasma is also altered. The statistical analysis as used by Goodwin et al (1984) assumed that the plasma clearance was not altered by infection. It was found that this simple model provided an inadequate fit to the data.…”

Serological and pathogenic characterization of avian reoviruses isolated in Quebec

“…D-xylose absorption tests for measuring small intestine dysfunction following virus infections have been reported in children (Mavromichalis et al, 1977), calves (Woode et al, 1978), mice (Heneghan, 1963), turkeys and broiler chickens (Goodwin et al, 1984;Goodwin et al, 1985). Our study using D-xylose test in the chickens inoculated with isolate 615 detected a statistically significant drop in intestinal absorption on day 7 pi.…”