An Assessment of Echocardiography as a Diagnostic Tool for Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

Our understanding of the etiology of Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM), which affects about 5% of turkeys, is limited. This limitation may be due to the lack of an easy-to-use diagnostic tool with well-defined parameters and does not involve necropsy. This lack of a widely tested non-necropsy method makes it difficult for a large-scale study of the genetic factors that underlie DCM. Here, we Evaluated Echocardiography (ECHO) for its ease and reliability for identifying DCM-affected turkeys from hatch to four weeks-of-age. The parameters evaluated included Left Ventricular Internal-Diastolic (LVIDd), Internal-Systolic Dimension (LVISd), Interventricular Septum End-Diastolic (IVSEd), Interventricular Septum End-Systolic (IVSEs), Left Ventricular Wall End-Systolic (LVWEs) and Left Ventricular Wall End-Diastolic (LVWEd). To induce DCM, feed containing 700 ppm of Furazolidone (Fz) was fed to turkey poults from one to 28 days-of-age. The LVIDd and LVISd were the most consistent indicators of DCM. Both parameters revealed differences between control and treatment poults of between 25 and 326% at the 4 ages at which ECHO measurements were taken. The average difference in LVIDd between control and poults fed Fz-containing diets ranged from 25% in one week-old to 80% in 4-week-old poults. At similar ages, average differences between control and poults fed Fz-containing diets in LVISd were 74 and 326% respectively. Necropsy of poults that survived to the end of the 4-week Fz-treatment confirmed these ECHO measurements in treatment and normal poults. Our data suggest that using LVIDd and LVISd as parameters make ECHO a reliable tool for identifying DCM in turkeys.