Effect of Feeding Antibiotics on the Intestinal Tract of the Chick

GORDON (1952) reported that when antibiotics were fed to chicks the weight of the small intestine was significantly reduced. A similar observation was made by Coates et al. (1955) and by Pepper et al. (1953). Coates and coworkers noted that the length of the gut was little affected by the antibiotic, nor was its content of fat or moisture altered, and concluded that the antibiotic caused a thinning of the gut wall. They also reported, without presenting data, that histological preparations of the guts from antibiotic-fed and control birds showed no morphological differences. The investigations described herein are concerned with observations made on the dry weight of the intestinal tract and the thickness of the components of the gut wall, as affected by the feeding of antibiotics. Four experiments were conducted for which the general procedure was …