AVIAN THIAMINE DEFICIENCY

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In previous papers1 the clinical and pathologic manifestations of a deficiency of thiamine in pigeons were described. Attention was directed chiefly to the peripheral nerves and the spinal cord, the brain and cranial nerves receiving relatively little consideration. For the sake of clarity and completeness this work will now be summarized. It will be unnecessary to survey the previous literature here, as that was done before. The clinical manifestations in pigeons of a deficiency in thiamine were found to vary with the speed of onset of the deficiency. If birds were given a thiamine-free diet in amounts sufficient to prevent starvation, opisthotonos occurred. In these acutely deficient birds opisthotonos was usually attended by a few degenerating fibers in both the peripheral and the central nervous system, but in very acutely deficient pigeons degenerative changes were sometimes absent. On the other hand, if the ration was only partially deficient in