The effect of a low fat diet on the spontaneously occurring arteriosclerosis of the chicken

1. 1. White leghorn cockerels, 6 to 10 weeks of age, were divided into two groups. Group 1 consisted of sixteen chickens which received in unlimited quantities a diet of chick starter mash and water. Group 2 consisted of fourteen chickens which received the same chick starter mash from which the fat and cholesterol had been largely removed by alcohol-ether extraction. This diet was made isocaloric by the addition of sucrose, and the vitamins removed in the extraction process were replaced. Feeding was continued for sixty-three weeks. 2. 2. Gross atherosclerosis was seen in 35 per cent of the chickens on the low fat diet and in 63 per cent of the chickens on the control diet. The lesions appeared earlier and were more severe in the control group. The incidence of microscopically visible lesions was equal in both groups. There was no essential difference in the structure of the lesions. 3. 3. The low fat group showed blood cholesterol levels which were consistently higher than those of the control group throughout the course of the experiment. Lipid analysis of the blood performed at the conclusion of the experiment revealed that all the lipid fractions of the blood were slightly higher in the low fat group than in the control group.