title: Haematological changes associated with food-related oral lesions in brown leghorn hens.
abstract: After 19 weeks on a mash diet nine of the 10 birds exhibited from two to 19 oral lesions. The majority of these lesions involved the total erosion of the buccal epidermis giving a total area of exposed dermis of 0.6 to 94.5 mm(2). This was accompanied by a significant reduction in the numbers of heterophils, monocytes and eosinophils. Birds with lesions also had significantly reduced concentrations of haemoglobin and may have been suffering from a mild form of microcytic normochromic anaemia without the complication of an extensive bone marrow involvement. These findings have implications for poultry welfare.
authors.affiliation: AFRC Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gentle
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: L N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seawright