Avian pulmonary hypertension syndrome. IV. Increased right ventricular mass in turkeys experimentally infected with Plasmodium durae.

Infection of young turkeys with Plasmodium durae produced a significant increase in the mean relative right ventricular mass from 0.172 in the controls to 0.208 in the infected group. Although turkeys react less strongly to hypoxia than broiler chickens, the similarity of this finding to that previously reported in broilers infected with Aegyptianella pullorum suggests that the hypoxic effect of the anaemia produced by these blood parasites causes the pulmonary hypertension and subsequent right ventricular hypertrophy.