Phenol red as indicator of the digestive tract motility in chickens.

Phenol red has been shown to produce no effects on intestinal motility of 24-hour-old chickens, allowing for quantitative measures of gastrointestinal transit and emptying. The results show that 1 hr after ingestion, the main digestive contents are stored in the crop with lesser amounts in the muscular part of the stomach, in the ileum, and in the rectum and caeca.