The effectiveness of ligating or detaching ceca as an alternative to cecectomy

Cecectomy (the surgical removal of ceca) is a technique that has been used to explore the nutritional and osmoregulatory role of the ceca in domestic fowl and other birds. The operation imposes a high level of physiological stress on a bird. The current study describes the effectiveness of ligating or detaching the ceca in young turkeys as an alternative to complete removal of the organ. Birds with ligated ceca showed less postsurgical depression and initiated feeding and other normal activities sooner than birds with detached ceca. Birds with detached ceca also had a significantly slower rate of weight gain 1 wk after surgery. Both surgically treated groups were more depressed than were sham-operated turkeys. Post-mortem examinations revealed that cecal detachment was more successful in actually separating the ceca from the rectum and in preventing flow of digesta in and out of the ceca. Evidence of growth of cecal stumps that remained attached to the rectum was found following both ligation and detachment. Post-mortem examinations revealed that in four birds both ligated or detached ceca left in the abdominal cavity became enlarged and filled with a dark, pasty, odorous substance. This increase in cecal size and volume of contents with time apparently indicates that some microbial metabolic activity continued in the cecal lumen. If so, this might have negative implications for studies that assume that such ceca are no longer functional.