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Influence of Diet on Development of the Abdominal Fat Pad in the Pullet

Department of Poultry Science and Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853

Adipose tissue developed by hyperplasia during the growth of the pullet until approximately 12 to 15 weeks of age. Feeding low energy or high protein diets, which limited adipose tissue accumulation, appeared to delay the time at which hyperplastic growth ceased, but did not alter cellularity of the abdominal fat pad at maturity. Although hypertrophic growth occurred throughout development of the abdominal fat pad, it was most pronounced after week 7; it was depressed by low energy or high protein diets. In two experiments the differences persisted after pullets previously fed either a low energy or high protein diet had been fed a control diet for several weeks. In one experiment, chicks fed the low energy diet until 9.5 weeks had fat pads of reduced size at 22 weeks of age. Moreover, the fat pads were similar in size to those of chicks fed the low energy diet from hatching until 22 weeks. In a second experiment pullets maintained the differences in fat pad weight throughout 19 weeks of egg production during which all groups received the same diet. These results suggest that adiposity in the pullet may be influenced by nutritional treatment during the period of growth and development prior to sexual maturity.

KEY WORDS: • adipose development • chickens • cell number • cell size • energy • protein

Manuscript received 11 September 1975.