Growth and digestive function of turkeys surviving the poult enteritis andmortality syndrome

Stunted growth of poults afflicted by enteritis mortality syndrome (PEMS) m ay be associated with depressed digestive capabilities. We conducted two ex periments to test this hypothesis. Survivors of PEMS were obtained from a r esearch flock that had been purposefully infected at 5 d of age with PEMS i noculum that included turkey corona virus. The PEMS survivors were assigned to Experiments 1 and 2, beginning at 40 and 35 d of age, respectively. Thr ee groups (large, L; medium, M; and small, S) and two groups (L and S) of 2 0 poults each were selected to represent different degrees of stunting in E xperiments 1 and 2, respectively. When the body weights of each group in bo th experiments were plotted using initial body weight as the starting point , all of the weights fell on the normal growth curve except Group S in Expe riment 1. Therefore, there was no evidence of compensatory growth over the period studied. In Experiment 1, apparent fat absorption (AFA) was signific antly higher (P < 0.05) for control (85.9%) than for M (78.5%) and S (78.3% ) groups, and AME(n) for the control group was significantly higher than al l the PEMS-survivor groups. In Experiment 2, Group L had a higher AFA and A ME(n) than Group S. AFA and AME(n) improved in both groups over time. The d igestive capabilities of PEMS survivors were depressed proportionally to th e degree of stunting. Impaired fat digestibility and dietary energy utiliza tion in PEMS-afflicted birds are likely contributors to stunted growth and reduced recovery rates.