Echocardiographic evaluation of left function after high lipid feeding in rabbits

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of high lipid feeding inrabbits on growth performance, lipid profile in blood, and the development ofcoronary heart disease as assessed by echocardiography. Also the studyincluded observation of the general health of the animals from the clinicaland histopathological point of view.Forty male NZW rabbits were used in this work. Their age was 8 weeksand about 1300 gm in weight. They were divided into 4 groups, 10 rabbits ’ineach group with about equal mean weight and TPC concentration. Theexperiment lasted 16 weeks after which period they were sacrificed andsubjected to pathological examination.The animals were kept and cared for according to the recommendations of the NRC (1994).Group 1: Control group fed a basal diet containing 3% fat, for 16w.Group 2: Fed the basal diet + 5% beef tallow for 16 w. Group 3: Fed the basal diet + 7% beef tallow for 16 w.Group 4: Fed the basal diet + 7% corn oil + 0.5% cholesterol, for 16 w.Growth Performance included measuring feed consumption, weight gain,feed conversion ratio and Efficiency of Energy Utilization (EEU).Group 2 showed the highest total and daily weight gain and the lowest feedconversion ratio. EEU was median between Group 1 and Group 3.In Group 1 growth performance parameters were insignificantly less than Group 2, with the exception of EEU which was the best in the groups.Group 3 and Group 4 showed even less growth performance parametersthan Group 1 and Group2 and the worst EEU (p = 0.021). Feedconsumption was about equal in all the Groups. The Lipid Profile of the rabbits was estimated at age 8 wand at 24 w, and data were compared. The parameters estimated were TPC, TG, LDLC, and HDLC. After a 12 hours fast, 5ml of blood were drawn from the mar