Experimental rickets in broilers: gross, microscopic, and radiographic lesions. III. Vitamin D deficiency.
Day-old broiler chicks were fed a vitamin D-deficient diet for 30 days. Gross, microscopic, and radiographic examinations of the proximal tibiotarsus were done at 2, 3, and 4 weeks of age. In 2-week-old chicks, there was variable lengthening and disorganization of the proliferating-prehypertrophied zone (P-PHZ), resorption of cartilage spicules in the degenerating hypertrophied zone and primary spongiosa, and lengthening of bone spicules in the secondary spongiosa; many bone surfaces were lined with increased osteoid. In 3-week-old chicks, there was a tendency for the P-PHZ to decrease in relative length and for cartilage spicules to increase in length. In 4-week-old chicks, however, there was marked lengthening of the P-PHZ, resorption of cartilage spicules, and replacement of the metaphysis with irregularly oriented islands of woven bone, osteoid, and loose fibrous connective tissue.
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000473:pathology; D002645:Chickens; D008297:Male; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D011859:Radiography; D012279:Rickets / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D013977:Tibia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014808:Vitamin D Deficiency / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary*