Plasma creatine kinase as an indicator of degenerative myopathy in live turkeys

1. Diagnosis for degenerative myopathy of the Musculus supracoracoideus (DMS) in the live bird was attempted from plasma creatine kinase (CK) [EC 2.7.3.2] activities in 70 female turkeys. The blood of each bird was sampled 18 to 20 times over an age span of 16 to 79 weeks. 2. DMS incidence was 15.7%. 3. After CK values were logarithmically transformed and corrected for bleeding date, 82% of the affected birds had one CK value that deviated 3 or more standard deviations from the mean of other values for the same bird. The results indicate that plasma CK activities can be used to identify affected birds with a high degree of reliability.