High altitude hypoxia as a factor that promotes tibial growth plate development in broiler chickens

Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is one of the most common problems in the poultry industry and leads to lameness by affecting the proximal growth plate of the tibia. However, due to the unique environmental and geographical conditions of Tibet, no case of TD has been reported in Tibetan chickens (TBCs). The present study was designed to investigate the effect of high altitude hypoxia on blood parameters and tibial growth plate development in chickens using the complete blood count, morphology, and histological examination. The results of this study showed an undesirable impact on the overall performance, body weight, and mortality of Arbor Acres chickens (AACs) exposed to a high altitude hypoxic environment. However, AACs raised under hypoxic conditions showed an elevated number of red blood cells (RBCs) and an increase in hemoglobin and hematocrit values on day 14 compared to the hypobaric normoxia group. Notably, the morphology and histology analyses showed that the size of tibial growth plates in AACs was enlarged and that the blood vessel density was also higher after exposure to the hypoxic environment for 14 days, while no such change was observed in TBCs. Altogether, our results revealed that the hypoxic environment has a potentially new role in increasing the blood vessel density of proximal tibial growth plates to strengthen and enhance the size of the growth plates, which may provide new insights for the therapeutic manipulation of hypoxia in poultry TD.