Abstract
The rôle of manganese in preventing perosis in chicks was established 1 some time ago, and more recently it was demonstrated by Hogan, Richardson, and Patrick 2 that an organic factor is equally essential. Both are required to prevent the disease. This organic nutrient is present in a 95% alcohol extract of dried liver but it is absent from the water extract which was prepared after the alcohol extraction. Jukes 3 identified choline with the antiperotic agent. Hogan, et al., 4 reported that choline protects chicks against perosis under certain conditions but in their experience it was not the only organic substance required. This report is to describe a type of perosis which results from a deficiency of a third, as yet unidentified, nutrient.
Day-old, single-comb White Leghorn chicks were used as experimental animals. The basal ration has the following composition: Casein 35. starch 31. cellulose 3. salt mixture 5 4, lard 17, acid hydrolyzed liver residue 10. Each 100 g of the ration was supplemented with 6000 I.U. of vitamin A. 850 I.U. vitamin D. 0.8 mg thiamin chloride, 1.6 mg riboflavin, 1.2 mg pyridoxine, 2.0 mg calcium pantothenate, 1.0 mg 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone, and 0.8 mg of alpha tocopherol. The ration contained 0.025% manganese and the crude vitamin carriers were substituted for an equal weight of starch.
The water extract of dried beef liver, No. 4080, which was described by Hogan, et al., 4 was used as a source of the unrecognized vitamins required by the chick. This extract was treated with fuller's earth at a pH of 1.0, and the adsorbate was then eluted with 0.2 N ammonia. Choline was supplied to all chicks except those in Group I. The other supplements were added to the basal ration as follows:
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