SPIROCHETOSIS IN BROILERS

One-day-old broilers were inoculated with spirochaetes (isolate 1380); the inocula consisting either of spirochaetes derived from plate culture or from intestinal homogenates of previously infected birds. After 13 to 15, and 21 days after inoculation growth was depressed, serum concentrations of protein lipid, carotenoids and bilirubin were decreased and the fat content of the faeces was increased. The activity of alkaline phosphatase in the serum was increased but the activities of tau-glutamyl transferase, sorbitol dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase of the infected groups were not affected. These findings indicate impaired resorption in the smaller intestine which cannot be explained from a direct effect of the spirochaetes on the smaller intestinal wall nor from pathological changes in the liver.