Effects of food restriction or delayed photostimulation on ovarian follicle number, plasma oestradiol concentration and vaginal collagen content in male-line turkeys

1. An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that severe food rest riction throughout the onset of lay or delaying photostimulation by 5 weeks would decrease the number of cn arian hierarchical follicles in male-line turkeys. It was proposed that a decrease in the number of hierarchical foll icles would lower plasma oestradiol concentration and be associated with hi gher vaginal collagen content and a lower propensity to prolapse of the ovi duct. 2. Five weeks after photostimulation, neither restriction to 63% of ad libi tum body weight nor delayed onset of photostimulation had any significant e ffect on follicle number, plasma oestradiol concentration or vaginal collag en content. 3, It was concluded that neither food restriction nor delayed photostimulat ion can be used to control the over-development of the cn arian hierarchy i n male-line turkeys.