Avian encephalomalacia in Barbados, West Indies: a description of spontaneous field cases with feed analyses.

The clinical, necropsy and histopathological findings in four natural outbreaks of encephalomalacia are reported. Feed analyses implicated low levels of vitamin E as the probable cause of the condition. Treatment with vitamin E has proved to be very effective. The instability of vitamin E in animal feed ingredients during long periods of shipment into the Caribbean may be important in the pathogenesis of the disease.