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Rations containing 0%, 6.2%, and 62% Penicillium citrinum contaminated corn were fed to White Leghorn chicks for 5 weeks. The 62% ration induced hemorrhaging throughout the digestive tract which resembled the lesions observed in acute cases of the poultry hemorrhagic syndrome. The 6.2% ration caused atrophy of lymphoid tissue, anemia, leucopenia, and fatty bone marrow which resembled the lesions observed in chronic cases of the poultry hemorrhagic syndrome. The syndrome was reproduced in chicks using ethanol and chloroform extracts of the P. citrinum contaminated corn.

Day-old white Leghorn chicks were fed P. citrinum-contaminated corn at 3.88, 7.75, 31, or 62% levels in the ration for a period of 5 weeks. High treatment levels (31 and 62%) of contaminated corn in the ration caused severe growth depression, high mortality, and significant decreases in feed consumption. Necrosis of periportal and centrilobular hepatocytes, glomerular atrophy and hyperplasia, degeneration and necrosis of tubular cells, lymphoid depletion, suppression of hematopoiesis, necrosis of pancreatic acinar cells, and a cardiac and skeletal myopathy were observed microscopically in chicks fed 31 and 62% contaminated corn in the rations. Low levels of contaminated corn in the ration (3.88 and 7.75%) caused few clinical effects; however, liver and kidney changes were observed microscopically. Ultrastructural observation of affected tissues showed swelling of mitochondria, dilatation of the endoplasmic reticulum, increased numbers of autophagic vacuoles and paramyelin figures, and lipoprotein peroxidation of organelles. The toxin (s) present in the P. citrinum contaminated ration have not been identified.