Morphological changes seen at sexual maturity in experimentally induced cystic testes of broiler fowls

It has been shown previously that a proportion of chicks fed on a high salt diet from hatching developed a severe diffuse cystic dilation of their seminiferous tubules. In an effort to determine whether such testes could produce spermatozoa, birds with cystic testes were selected by direct inspection of their gonads at laparotomy and then maintained until sexual maturity when they were killed and their testes examined histologically. A variety of pathological features was found in the seminiferous tubules but spermatogenesis could be demonstrated in the majority of gonads, thus indicating that although severely damaged at 4 weeks of age considerable epithelial recovery is possible, even though these birds were maintained on a high salt diet for the entire experimental period of 40 weeks.