A Perotic Syndrome in Chicks Fed Extracted Rape Seed Meal

THE problems involved in the feeding of rape seed oil meal to livestock have been comprehensively reviewed by Bell (1955). It would appear that, as far as poultry are concerned, levels above 10 percent of the ration have invariably produced a reduction of liveweight gain and efficiency of food conversion. Thyroid hyperplasia has normally been associated with growth depression (Blakely and Anderson, 1948a; Allen and Dow, 1952; Renner, Clandinin and Robblee, 1955) and has been ascribed to the effect of the known goitrogenic compounds of rape seed, L-5-vinyl-2-thio-oxazolidone (Astwood, Greer and Ettlinger, 1949a; Carroll, 1949) and allyl or crotonyl isothiocyanates (Dow and Allen, 1954). Astwood, Greer and Ettlinger (1949b) suggested a possible relationship between the two compounds. Extracted rape seed meal is a material containing some 36 percent crude protein, 1.5 percent oil and 10 percent crude fibre. Witz, Carpenter and Hayward (1950), in a study with rats, show that…