S. C. White Leghorn female chickens were subjected to a restricted-refeeding program in an attempt to induce fatty liver-hemorrhagic syndrome (FLHS) and to ascertain the relationship between hemorrhage occurrence and liver lipid content. Restricted feeding resulted in significantly (P< .01) lower liver, body and abdominal fat weights. The reduced liver weight reflected significantly (P<.01) lower water, lipid and non-lipid dry component weights. None of the hens on the restricted feeding schedules had any liver hemorrhages characteristic of FLHS; however, the control, ad tibilum-fed hens, had a 25 percent incidence rate. The restricted-ref eeding program employed did not increase the incidence of FLHS. High lipid content in the liver did not necessarily indicate FLHS, yet in some manner, lipid predisposed the liver to hemorrhage because the hemorrhage of FLHS was observed only in birds with high liver lipid values.

Fatty liver-hemorrhagic syndrome (FLHS), a nutritional disorder previously reported only in laying chickens was induced in immature male and female chickens, 11 weeks of age, of broiler and egg-laying breeds. Force-feeding three times a day for 21 days, amounts of feed equal to 125% and 150% of ad libitum intake, produced a gradient response in hepatic steatosis (measured by percentage of fat in the liver, and the ratio of fat to the fat-free dry weight), but not FLHS. Intramuscular injection of beta-estradiol-17-dipropionate at 2 mg/kg body weight, three times weekly for 21 days, produced a gradient response in hemorrhagic score and an increase in ad libitum feed intake. There was no significant difference between sex or breed in the score values used to evaluate FLHS, but females of both breeds accumulated significantly more fat in the liver than males. Testosterone dipropionate at 25 mg/kg of body weight, injected three times per week in immature females force-fed at the 150% level, produced increases in food intake and liver fat as did estrogen, but no hepatic hemorrhaging. The data implicate estrogen as a factor in the production of FLHS along with the necessity for the chicken to be in a positive energy balance creating sufficient hepatic fat for FLHS to occur.

White leghorn chicks were fed diets with 4% tallow supplemented with one of the following bile acids at .04%: cholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, dehydrocholic acid, deoxycholic acid, or sodium taurocholate. Cholic acid improved the absorption of tallow but not significantly; chenodeoxycholic acid significantly improved tallow absorption during days 0 to 7 but decreased it during days 14 to 21. The bile acids, dehydrocholic acid, deoxycholic acid, and sodium taurocholate had no significant effect on absorption of tallow. In a 2 x 3 factorial design involving cholic acid and lipase, .04% cholic acid and/or .10% lipase significantly improved the absorption of tallow by 8 and 4% in chicks 1 and 3 weeks of age, respectively. Dry matter digestibility and efficiency appeared to be improved with the improvement of lipid absorption.

Heavy breed chicks fed isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets containing 7.6% tallow or one of four different hydrogenated animal and vegetable fats (HAVFs) at 6.2% retained 25% less lipid when 1 week of age than when 2 or 3 weeks of age. The addition of .04% sodium taurocholate (NaT) improved lipid retention most at 1 week of age but had no effect on retention of nitrogen. The apparent metabolizable energy (ME a ) was 10% less for the chick 1 week of age, reflecting lower lipid and nitrogen retentions by the very young chicken. Percentages of carcass lipid and protein were lowest at 1 week of age (10.4%) and increased by the 3rd week (17%). The addition of NaT did not cause any significant changes in carcass composition. The data indicated that absorptive mechanisms for lipid and protein are not fully developed in the very young chick and that dietary bile salts tend to improve lipid but not nitrogen absorption. (

Apparent fat absorption was 39.6 and 68.2% in chicks 4-7 and 14-19 days of age, respectively, fed purified-type diets with 8.2% tallow (TLW). Cholic acid (C.A.), chenodesoxycholic acid (Ch.A.) and taurocholate, sodium salt (T.A.) at .025 and .05% increased significantly the apparent absorption of fat by 8.4 percentage units in chicks 4-7 days of age, and as much as 10 percentage units in chicks 14-19 days of age. No significant increase in metabolized energy of diets was detected. C.A. was fed to S.C.W.L. hens at graded levels up to .2% in corn-soy diets containing either 4 or 8% TLW or hydrogenated soybean oil. No improvement in fat absorption or M.E. was detected in these hens which absorbed 86-89% of the fat. The data indicate that bile salts appear to be effective in improving the absorption of saturated-type fats only in young chicks whose absorptive mechanism for fat is not fully developed.