Developmental changes in serum proteins, lipids and cholesterol during the course of force feeding in geese.

Ten females and ten males of each of the Rhenish, Italian and Landes breeds of geese were force fed for four weeks. Blood samples were collected from the birds at weekly intervals beginning from the week before force feeding, the total protein and its fractions, total lipid and cholesterol were determined in the faultless blood serum samples. As regards total proteins level, the values did not show a definite trend during the experimental period. The differences between breeds was only significant at the fourth week of cramming. Specifically, the difference was highly significant between the Rhenish and the Italian and between this last breed and the Landes breed. The percentage of albumin increased during the experimental period in the breeds of geese studied. The total globulin percentage decreased during the same period in the same breeds. The albumin to globulin ratio in the blood sera of geese was 0.78 before cramming and z.i 4 at the end of the experiment. Differences in the percentage of albumin, globulin to globulin ratio due to the breed were not significant. Both sera lipid and cholesterol level increased during the force feeding period. The breed differences were statistically not significant before the force feeding procedure in both items. At the third and fourth weeks of force feeding, breed showed a highly significant effect of the cholestrol level.