Are poultry and other birds sufficiently represented as animal models in biomedical reserach of some human diseases in croatia

Numerous studies on poultry as an important animal models in the investigation of non-infectious diseases in humans have been successfully carried out and published in numerous scientific journals around the world. This report should not be taken as definitive, rather as a short review of some successfully completed investigations on poultry as animal models in Croatia (cardiovascular diseases in chickens. It is also questioning the justification of the current obstacles to the continuation and completion of research of e.g. degenerative retinopathy in chickens (very similar to retinitis pigmentosa in humans), acute heart diseases (in broiler turkey as a model), and also the neglection of other species of birds as animal models (Parrot Proventricular Dilatation Disease as the model in the study of Guillain-Barre syndrome in humans).