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Reproductive endocrine changes in relation to calcium metabolism in layers experimentally infected with Escherichia coliJoshua Tersue Adeke,Hassan Abdulsalam ,Halima Idrisa Gambo,Joseph John Gadzama,George Yilzem Gurumyen,Ladi Amos Chabiri,Talatu Patience Markus,Sani Adamu,King Akpofure Nelson Esievo. Abstract |  Download PDF | Cited by 0 Articles |  Post | Aim: This study determined calcium metabolism-related reproductive endocrine changes associated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) infection in layer chickens.
Methods: A total of 20 laying chickens (20 weeks old) were acquired and assigned, into two groups (infected and controlled) of 10 layers each. Birds in the infected group were challenged with 0.5 ml of bacterial aliquot containing 109 colony forming units (CFU) of the bacteria, intratracheally. Two (2) ml of blood were collected from each bird in both groups and used for biochemical analyses.
Results: Escherichia coli infection in layers caused decrease in mean oestrogen profile from day 6 reaching the lowest value (332.6 ± 5.41 pg/ml) on day 28 post infection (pi) that differed significantly (p < 0.05) from the corresponding value in the control group. The mean plasma progesterone profile and mean plasma calcium concentration in the infected group decreased from day 4 and 6 pi, respectively, and reached the lowest significant (p
Key words: Calcium, Colibacillosis, Layer-chicken, Oestrogen, Parathormone
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