- Email: [email protected]
The Value of Certain Supplements in Practical Chick Rations Containing Adequate Riboflavin*
The Value of Certain Supplements in Practical Chick Rations Containing Adequate Riboflavin* W. W. CRAVENS, W. H. MCGIBBON, AND J. G. HALPIN . Poultry Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin (Received for publication, October 5, 1944)
Q EVERAL factors are responsible for ^ the radical changes being made in the composition of poultry rations. Wartime shortages of various feedstuffs have, of course, made certain changes essential. However, even before the war, the trend was toward the use of larger quantities of vegetable proteins and less of those of animal origin. Also at times the alfalfa products commonly included in poultry rations have been difficult to obtain and of poor quality. Synthetic riboflavin and other materials rich in this factor are becoming cheap and readily available and are often suggested as a replacement for dried milk. The following experiments were conducted to determine whether or not satisfactory results would be obtained if the alfalfa leaf meal and dried milk are replaced with vitamin A from fish oils and synthetic riboflavin in rations containing a limited quantity of animal protein. EXPERIMENTAL
For sake of brevity only three experiments will be reported. These three trials * Published with the approval of the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. Supported in part by a grant from The Borden Company. We are indebted to The Borden Company, Special Products Division, New York, for the condensed fish press water, ground fish viscera and the condensed whey solubles; to The Wilson Laboratories, Chicago, for the solubilized liver (liver Fraction L). 305
were designed as the result of information obtained from preliminary experiments. Day old Single Comb White Leghorn chicks hatched from the experiment station flock were used. In experiment 1 three hundred chicks were wing banded and divided equally among ten lots in an all metal chick starting battery. At the end of two weeks the number of chicks was reduced to twenty-five in each group. In experiment 2 three hundred fifty-six pedigreed chicks were divided among seven lots and three hundred seventy-seven chicks from the same hens were divided among the seven lots in experiment 3, which was started the following week. In experiments 2. and 3 the chicks were brooded in 4'X6' colony houses with electric hovers. The chicks had access to screened-in sand yards when the weather permitted. The composition of the basal ration was as follows: '44 Basal Ground yellow corn Wheat bran Std. wheat middlings Limestone grit Granite grit Steamed bone meal Salt .'.. Manganese sulfate, anhyd
,.
37.5 IS 15 1.5 1.5 1 0.5 0.6 oz.
Although the sardine oil used in the diets was guaranteed to contain 600 I.U. of vitamin A per gram, additional vitamin A was supplied in the form of shark liver oil. No attempt was made to adjust the
306
W. W. CRAVENS, W. H. MCGIBBON, AND J. G. HALPIN
vitamin A content of the various rations to a uniform level when supplements were added, inasmuch as adequate quantities were supplied by the basal ration and the fish oils used. The control diet was made by adding five pounds each of alfalfa leaf meal, meat scrap, fish meal, dried skimmilk, soybean oil meal and 0.5 pound of TABLE 1.-—Experiment
unidentified factors required by the chick (Briggs Luckey, Elvehjem and Hart, 1943). The chicks were weighed bi-weekly and records of feed consumption were kept. The complete rations fed, the average weight of the chicks at six weeks and the grams of feed per gram of gain for the
1: Rations fed, number of chicks and average weights Group (diets in percent)
Ingredients J l 11 J11'2 '44 Basal Alfalfa leaf meal Dried skimmilk Fish meal Meat scrap Soybean oil meal Sardine oil 85D-600A Ration Ayd 85 Condensed whey solubles Condensed fish press water Ground fish viscera Solubilized liver Vitamin A I.U./100 gms. Riboflavin mcgms./lOO gms.
J113 J114
JUS
J116
J117
J118
J119
J120 73 5 S 5 5 6 1
72
72
68 5
68 5
69
67
72
68
69 5
4 23 1
4 23 1
4 22 1
4 22 1
4 23 1
4 23 1
4 21 1
4 21 1
4 21 1
2 2 2
3 5 2 130
130
130 100
100
100
100
100
IS 8 10 - 17
16 9
16 7
9 16
130
130 130
130
30 00
130 130
130 130
100
100
100
100
100
100
Males Females
12 6
IS 9
15 10
16 9
13 12
Weight at 6 weeks Males Females
236 193
339 274
313 276
341 298
392 389
372 359
384 341
399 371
3.24
2.98
2.96
2.96
2.76
2.90
2.91
2.80
Total No. at 6 weeks
Gms. feed per gm. gain
sardine oil to 74.5 pounds of the above basal. The condensed fish press water and the ground fish viscera are by-products of the fish oil and fish packing industries. The press water used contained approximately fifty percent solids while the ground viscera contained approximately thirty percent solids. The. condensed Whey solubles used in these trials contained approximately sixty percent solids and conform to the tentative definition of the Association of American Feed Control officials. Solubilized liver was used inasmuch as it has been found to be an excellent source of
335 • 356 381 349 3.35
2.81
respective experiments are given in Tables 1, 2 and 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Using the values reported by Ellis and Madsen (1943) the basal diet, with the protein supplements added, was found to contain approximately two hundred thirty-five micrograms of riboflavin per one hundred grams. That the addition of one hundred thirty micrograms of riboflavin per one hundred grams of ration resulted in a considerable increase in growth may be seen by comparing the results of groups 111 and 112 of experi-
307
CERTAIN SUPPLEMENTS IN PRACTICAL CHICK RATIONS TABLE 2.-—Experiment
2: Rations fed, number of chicks and average weights Group (diets in percent)
Ingredients '44 Basal Alfalfa leaf meal Dried skimmilk Fish meal Meat scrap Soybean oil meal Sardine oil 85D-600A Condensed fish press water Solubilized liver Riboflavin mcgms./lOO gms. Vitamin A I.U./100 gms.
Al
A2-
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
74.5 5 5 5 5 5 0.5
71.5
71.5
68.5
70.5
71.5
73.5
5
5
5
4 19 0.5
4 19 0.5
4 19 0.5 3
4 22 0.5 3
22 0.5
4 22 0.5
130 130
130 130
2 130 130
130 130
130
130
130 130
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Males Females
25 25
24 25
28 21
22 25
26 23
29 17
22 25
Weight at 6 weeks Males Females
422 401
334 329
348 330
468 435
410 365
346 281
292 293
Total No. of chicks at 6 weeks.
Gms. feed per gm. gain
,
2. 93
3. 36
ment 1 and B-2 and B-3 of experiment 3. The addition of five percent of sun cured alfalfa leaf meal which would supply approximately eighty micrograms of flavin TABLE 3.-—Experiment
3. 27
2.80
3.03
3.34
3.50
per one hundred grams of ration resulted in a growth increase comparable to the crystalline riboflavin. One hundred micrograms of riboflavin in addition to five per-
3: Rations fed, number of chicks and average weights Group (diets in percent)
Ingredients '44 Basal » Alfalfa leaf meal Dried skimmilk Fish meal Meat scrap Soybean oil meal Sardine Oil 85D-600A Condensed fish press water Ground fish viscera Solubilized liver Condensed whey solubles Riboflavin mcgms./lOO gms. Vitamin A I.U./100 gms. Total
Bl
B2
B3
.B4
B5
B6
B7
74.5 5 5 5 5 5 0.5
73.5
73.5
69.5
68.5
66.5
71.5
4 22 0.5
4 22 0.5
4 220.5 4
4 22 0.5
4 22 0.5 4
4 22 0.5
130 130
130 130
3 130 130
130 130 100
130
130
130 130
100
100
100
100
100
100
No. of chicks at 6 weeks
Males Females
29 20
19 32
25 23
23 25
27 24
26 26
Weight at 6 weeks
Males Females
414 383
251 218
288 292
397 351
407 363
445 369
Gms. feed per gm. gain
3.02
3.60
3.56
3.17
3.16
2.97
26 22365 309 3.35
308
W. W. CRAVENS, W. H. MCGIBBON, AND J. G. HALPIN
cent alfalfa leaf meal gave no better growth than either supplement alone (groups 112-114). By comparing the results of the basal group plus riboflavin with the groups receiving either condensed fish press water or ground fish viscera it is apparent that these supplements were particularly effective in increasing the rate of growth. No significant difference in the value of these two supplements was found in these experiments. In experiment 1 as well as in one preliminary trial two percent of solubilized liver gave results comparable to the fish products. However, in the latter two experiments the growth increase resulting from the addition of this supplement was slight. The significance of this observation is not apparent at this time. In experiment 2 the addition of five percent dried skimmilk to the basal diet, with or without added riboflavin, resulted in only a slight increase in growth. However, the combination of dried skimmilk and condensed fish press water was of particular value. It is believed that since additional riboflavin in the presence of five percent alfalfa leaf meal or dried skimmilk resulted in no increase in growth that adequate riboflavin was supplied by the quantity added to the basal diet. However, it is not possible to conclude .that a supplementary relationship exists between the dried skimmilk and the fish press water inasmuch as the quantity of riboflavin supplied may not have been in excess of the requirements. The condensed fish press water used in these trials was assayed* for "folic acid" using the Streptococcus lactis R method of Luckey, Briggs and Elvehjem (1944) * We are indebted to Dr. G. M. Briggs, Jr., and Mr. T. D. Luckey for making these assays.
and found to be less than 0.2 percent as active as solubilized liver. The addition of either 2.5 or 5 percent of condensed fish press water to ration 486K of Briggs, Luckey, Mills, Elvehjem and Hart (1943) failed to either improve growth or feathering of chicks, showing that this material does not contain a significant quantity of vitamins Bi0 and Bn of these workers (1943). It is interesting to note that, in general, fish meals have been found to be more effective than meat scraps in supplementing soybean oil meal in practical chick rations (Christiansen, Deobald, Halpin and Hart, 1940; Carver and Evans, 1943; Hammond and Titus, 1944). The results of the present study would indicate that protein quality is not the chief factor, but that certain other nutritive factors are present in fish meals that are necessary for best results in practical chick diets. The results of these experiments are essentially in agreement with those recently reported by Hill, Scott, Norris and Heuser (1944). However, these workers reported that dried whey resulted in improved growth while in the present study dried skimmilk resulted in only a slight increase in growth. These authors have already discussed the relation of their findings to members of the vitamin B complex, both known and unidentified. The present study would seem to confirm the conclusion of Hill et al. (1944) that certain combinations of practical feedstuffs, apparently adequate in the known members of the vitamin B complex require an unidentified factor or factors for satisfactory growth of chicks. The possibility must not be overlooked, however, that a certain balance of nutritive factors is essential in diets composed of natural feedstuffs such as were used in the present study. In fact Cunha, Kirkwood, Phillips and Bohstedt (1943) have reported that
CERTAIN SUPPLEMENTS IN PRACTICAL CHICK RATIONS
the addition of certain vitamins without others to a diet composed of natural feedstuffs seemed to result in detrimental growth. Unpublished results obtained at this laboratory with breeding hens fed diets composed of natural feeds tuffs seem to confirm these findings. Regardless of the manner in which these supplements benefit the basal ration, the results demonstrate clearly that when a minimum quantity of animal protein from meat scraps is used in chick rations the riboflavin content of the vitamin supplements used is not an adequate measure of their value in practical poultry nutrition. SUMMARY A diet composed of yellow corn, wheat by-products, meat scraps, soybean oil meal, minerals, fish oil and riboflavin has been found unsatisfactory as a diet for growing chicks. The addition of five percent sun-cured alfalfa leaf meal failed to significantly improve growth while five percent of dried skimmilk results in only a slight improvement in growth. Solubilized liver (2 percent) when added to the basal diet gave variable and inconclusive results. The addition of condensed fish press water or ground fish viscera were highly effective in supplementing the basal diet. A combination of dried skimmilk and fish
309
press water proved to be the most satisfactory combination tested. The significance of these findings is briefly discussed. REFERENCES
Briggs, G. M., Jr., T. D. Luckey, C. A. Elvehjem and E. B. Hart, 1943. Studies on two chemically unidentified water soluble vitamins necessary for the chick. Jour. Biol. Chem. 148:163-172. Briggs, G. N., Jr., T. D. Luckey, R. C, Mills, C. A. Elvehjem and E. B. Hart, 1943. Effect of p-. aminobenzoic acid when added to purified chick diets deficient in unknown vitamins. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med. 52:7-10. Carver, J. S., and R. J. Evans, 1943. Animal and vegetable protein combinations in chick starting rations. U. S. Egg and Poultry Mag. 49:468-471. Christiansen, J. B., H. J. Deobold, J. G. Halpin and E. B. Hart, 1940. Practical supplements for soybean oil meal in chick rations. Poultry Sci. 19: 18-22. Cunha, T. J., S. Kirkwood, P. H. Phillips and G. Bohstedt, 1943. Effect of inositol upon rat alopecia. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med. 54:236238. ' Ellis, N. R., and L. L. Madsen, 1943. The vitamin content of animal feeds tuffs. U. S. Dept. of Agric. Bureau of An. Ind. A.H.D. No. 61:1-18. Hammond, J. C , and H. W. Titus, 1944. The use of soybean meal in the «diet of growing chicks. Poultry Sci. 23:49-57. . Hill, F. W...M. L. Scott,L. C. Norris and G. F. Heuser, 1944. Deficiency of unidentified vitamins in practical chick rations. Poultry Sci. 23:253254. . Luckey, T. D., G. M. Briggs, Jr., C. A. Elvehjem, 1944. The use of Streptococcus lactis R. for the measurement of folic acid. Jour. Biol. Chem. 152: 157-167.
Q EVERAL factors are responsible for ^ the radical changes being made in the composition of poultry rations. Wartime shortages of various feedstuffs have, of course, made certain changes essential. However, even before the war, the trend was toward the use of larger quantities of vegetable proteins and less of those of animal origin. Also at times the alfalfa products commonly included in poultry rations have been difficult to obtain and of poor quality. Synthetic riboflavin and other materials rich in this factor are becoming cheap and readily available and are often suggested as a replacement for dried milk. The following experiments were conducted to determine whether or not satisfactory results would be obtained if the alfalfa leaf meal and dried milk are replaced with vitamin A from fish oils and synthetic riboflavin in rations containing a limited quantity of animal protein. EXPERIMENTAL
For sake of brevity only three experiments will be reported. These three trials * Published with the approval of the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. Supported in part by a grant from The Borden Company. We are indebted to The Borden Company, Special Products Division, New York, for the condensed fish press water, ground fish viscera and the condensed whey solubles; to The Wilson Laboratories, Chicago, for the solubilized liver (liver Fraction L). 305
were designed as the result of information obtained from preliminary experiments. Day old Single Comb White Leghorn chicks hatched from the experiment station flock were used. In experiment 1 three hundred chicks were wing banded and divided equally among ten lots in an all metal chick starting battery. At the end of two weeks the number of chicks was reduced to twenty-five in each group. In experiment 2 three hundred fifty-six pedigreed chicks were divided among seven lots and three hundred seventy-seven chicks from the same hens were divided among the seven lots in experiment 3, which was started the following week. In experiments 2. and 3 the chicks were brooded in 4'X6' colony houses with electric hovers. The chicks had access to screened-in sand yards when the weather permitted. The composition of the basal ration was as follows: '44 Basal Ground yellow corn Wheat bran Std. wheat middlings Limestone grit Granite grit Steamed bone meal Salt .'.. Manganese sulfate, anhyd
,.
37.5 IS 15 1.5 1.5 1 0.5 0.6 oz.
Although the sardine oil used in the diets was guaranteed to contain 600 I.U. of vitamin A per gram, additional vitamin A was supplied in the form of shark liver oil. No attempt was made to adjust the
306
W. W. CRAVENS, W. H. MCGIBBON, AND J. G. HALPIN
vitamin A content of the various rations to a uniform level when supplements were added, inasmuch as adequate quantities were supplied by the basal ration and the fish oils used. The control diet was made by adding five pounds each of alfalfa leaf meal, meat scrap, fish meal, dried skimmilk, soybean oil meal and 0.5 pound of TABLE 1.-—Experiment
unidentified factors required by the chick (Briggs Luckey, Elvehjem and Hart, 1943). The chicks were weighed bi-weekly and records of feed consumption were kept. The complete rations fed, the average weight of the chicks at six weeks and the grams of feed per gram of gain for the
1: Rations fed, number of chicks and average weights Group (diets in percent)
Ingredients J l 11 J11'2 '44 Basal Alfalfa leaf meal Dried skimmilk Fish meal Meat scrap Soybean oil meal Sardine oil 85D-600A Ration Ayd 85 Condensed whey solubles Condensed fish press water Ground fish viscera Solubilized liver Vitamin A I.U./100 gms. Riboflavin mcgms./lOO gms.
J113 J114
JUS
J116
J117
J118
J119
J120 73 5 S 5 5 6 1
72
72
68 5
68 5
69
67
72
68
69 5
4 23 1
4 23 1
4 22 1
4 22 1
4 23 1
4 23 1
4 21 1
4 21 1
4 21 1
2 2 2
3 5 2 130
130
130 100
100
100
100
100
IS 8 10 - 17
16 9
16 7
9 16
130
130 130
130
30 00
130 130
130 130
100
100
100
100
100
100
Males Females
12 6
IS 9
15 10
16 9
13 12
Weight at 6 weeks Males Females
236 193
339 274
313 276
341 298
392 389
372 359
384 341
399 371
3.24
2.98
2.96
2.96
2.76
2.90
2.91
2.80
Total No. at 6 weeks
Gms. feed per gm. gain
sardine oil to 74.5 pounds of the above basal. The condensed fish press water and the ground fish viscera are by-products of the fish oil and fish packing industries. The press water used contained approximately fifty percent solids while the ground viscera contained approximately thirty percent solids. The. condensed Whey solubles used in these trials contained approximately sixty percent solids and conform to the tentative definition of the Association of American Feed Control officials. Solubilized liver was used inasmuch as it has been found to be an excellent source of
335 • 356 381 349 3.35
2.81
respective experiments are given in Tables 1, 2 and 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Using the values reported by Ellis and Madsen (1943) the basal diet, with the protein supplements added, was found to contain approximately two hundred thirty-five micrograms of riboflavin per one hundred grams. That the addition of one hundred thirty micrograms of riboflavin per one hundred grams of ration resulted in a considerable increase in growth may be seen by comparing the results of groups 111 and 112 of experi-
307
CERTAIN SUPPLEMENTS IN PRACTICAL CHICK RATIONS TABLE 2.-—Experiment
2: Rations fed, number of chicks and average weights Group (diets in percent)
Ingredients '44 Basal Alfalfa leaf meal Dried skimmilk Fish meal Meat scrap Soybean oil meal Sardine oil 85D-600A Condensed fish press water Solubilized liver Riboflavin mcgms./lOO gms. Vitamin A I.U./100 gms.
Al
A2-
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
74.5 5 5 5 5 5 0.5
71.5
71.5
68.5
70.5
71.5
73.5
5
5
5
4 19 0.5
4 19 0.5
4 19 0.5 3
4 22 0.5 3
22 0.5
4 22 0.5
130 130
130 130
2 130 130
130 130
130
130
130 130
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Males Females
25 25
24 25
28 21
22 25
26 23
29 17
22 25
Weight at 6 weeks Males Females
422 401
334 329
348 330
468 435
410 365
346 281
292 293
Total No. of chicks at 6 weeks.
Gms. feed per gm. gain
,
2. 93
3. 36
ment 1 and B-2 and B-3 of experiment 3. The addition of five percent of sun cured alfalfa leaf meal which would supply approximately eighty micrograms of flavin TABLE 3.-—Experiment
3. 27
2.80
3.03
3.34
3.50
per one hundred grams of ration resulted in a growth increase comparable to the crystalline riboflavin. One hundred micrograms of riboflavin in addition to five per-
3: Rations fed, number of chicks and average weights Group (diets in percent)
Ingredients '44 Basal » Alfalfa leaf meal Dried skimmilk Fish meal Meat scrap Soybean oil meal Sardine Oil 85D-600A Condensed fish press water Ground fish viscera Solubilized liver Condensed whey solubles Riboflavin mcgms./lOO gms. Vitamin A I.U./100 gms. Total
Bl
B2
B3
.B4
B5
B6
B7
74.5 5 5 5 5 5 0.5
73.5
73.5
69.5
68.5
66.5
71.5
4 22 0.5
4 22 0.5
4 220.5 4
4 22 0.5
4 22 0.5 4
4 22 0.5
130 130
130 130
3 130 130
130 130 100
130
130
130 130
100
100
100
100
100
100
No. of chicks at 6 weeks
Males Females
29 20
19 32
25 23
23 25
27 24
26 26
Weight at 6 weeks
Males Females
414 383
251 218
288 292
397 351
407 363
445 369
Gms. feed per gm. gain
3.02
3.60
3.56
3.17
3.16
2.97
26 22365 309 3.35
308
W. W. CRAVENS, W. H. MCGIBBON, AND J. G. HALPIN
cent alfalfa leaf meal gave no better growth than either supplement alone (groups 112-114). By comparing the results of the basal group plus riboflavin with the groups receiving either condensed fish press water or ground fish viscera it is apparent that these supplements were particularly effective in increasing the rate of growth. No significant difference in the value of these two supplements was found in these experiments. In experiment 1 as well as in one preliminary trial two percent of solubilized liver gave results comparable to the fish products. However, in the latter two experiments the growth increase resulting from the addition of this supplement was slight. The significance of this observation is not apparent at this time. In experiment 2 the addition of five percent dried skimmilk to the basal diet, with or without added riboflavin, resulted in only a slight increase in growth. However, the combination of dried skimmilk and condensed fish press water was of particular value. It is believed that since additional riboflavin in the presence of five percent alfalfa leaf meal or dried skimmilk resulted in no increase in growth that adequate riboflavin was supplied by the quantity added to the basal diet. However, it is not possible to conclude .that a supplementary relationship exists between the dried skimmilk and the fish press water inasmuch as the quantity of riboflavin supplied may not have been in excess of the requirements. The condensed fish press water used in these trials was assayed* for "folic acid" using the Streptococcus lactis R method of Luckey, Briggs and Elvehjem (1944) * We are indebted to Dr. G. M. Briggs, Jr., and Mr. T. D. Luckey for making these assays.
and found to be less than 0.2 percent as active as solubilized liver. The addition of either 2.5 or 5 percent of condensed fish press water to ration 486K of Briggs, Luckey, Mills, Elvehjem and Hart (1943) failed to either improve growth or feathering of chicks, showing that this material does not contain a significant quantity of vitamins Bi0 and Bn of these workers (1943). It is interesting to note that, in general, fish meals have been found to be more effective than meat scraps in supplementing soybean oil meal in practical chick rations (Christiansen, Deobald, Halpin and Hart, 1940; Carver and Evans, 1943; Hammond and Titus, 1944). The results of the present study would indicate that protein quality is not the chief factor, but that certain other nutritive factors are present in fish meals that are necessary for best results in practical chick diets. The results of these experiments are essentially in agreement with those recently reported by Hill, Scott, Norris and Heuser (1944). However, these workers reported that dried whey resulted in improved growth while in the present study dried skimmilk resulted in only a slight increase in growth. These authors have already discussed the relation of their findings to members of the vitamin B complex, both known and unidentified. The present study would seem to confirm the conclusion of Hill et al. (1944) that certain combinations of practical feedstuffs, apparently adequate in the known members of the vitamin B complex require an unidentified factor or factors for satisfactory growth of chicks. The possibility must not be overlooked, however, that a certain balance of nutritive factors is essential in diets composed of natural feedstuffs such as were used in the present study. In fact Cunha, Kirkwood, Phillips and Bohstedt (1943) have reported that
CERTAIN SUPPLEMENTS IN PRACTICAL CHICK RATIONS
the addition of certain vitamins without others to a diet composed of natural feedstuffs seemed to result in detrimental growth. Unpublished results obtained at this laboratory with breeding hens fed diets composed of natural feeds tuffs seem to confirm these findings. Regardless of the manner in which these supplements benefit the basal ration, the results demonstrate clearly that when a minimum quantity of animal protein from meat scraps is used in chick rations the riboflavin content of the vitamin supplements used is not an adequate measure of their value in practical poultry nutrition. SUMMARY A diet composed of yellow corn, wheat by-products, meat scraps, soybean oil meal, minerals, fish oil and riboflavin has been found unsatisfactory as a diet for growing chicks. The addition of five percent sun-cured alfalfa leaf meal failed to significantly improve growth while five percent of dried skimmilk results in only a slight improvement in growth. Solubilized liver (2 percent) when added to the basal diet gave variable and inconclusive results. The addition of condensed fish press water or ground fish viscera were highly effective in supplementing the basal diet. A combination of dried skimmilk and fish
309
press water proved to be the most satisfactory combination tested. The significance of these findings is briefly discussed. REFERENCES
Briggs, G. M., Jr., T. D. Luckey, C. A. Elvehjem and E. B. Hart, 1943. Studies on two chemically unidentified water soluble vitamins necessary for the chick. Jour. Biol. Chem. 148:163-172. Briggs, G. N., Jr., T. D. Luckey, R. C, Mills, C. A. Elvehjem and E. B. Hart, 1943. Effect of p-. aminobenzoic acid when added to purified chick diets deficient in unknown vitamins. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med. 52:7-10. Carver, J. S., and R. J. Evans, 1943. Animal and vegetable protein combinations in chick starting rations. U. S. Egg and Poultry Mag. 49:468-471. Christiansen, J. B., H. J. Deobold, J. G. Halpin and E. B. Hart, 1940. Practical supplements for soybean oil meal in chick rations. Poultry Sci. 19: 18-22. Cunha, T. J., S. Kirkwood, P. H. Phillips and G. Bohstedt, 1943. Effect of inositol upon rat alopecia. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med. 54:236238. ' Ellis, N. R., and L. L. Madsen, 1943. The vitamin content of animal feeds tuffs. U. S. Dept. of Agric. Bureau of An. Ind. A.H.D. No. 61:1-18. Hammond, J. C , and H. W. Titus, 1944. The use of soybean meal in the «diet of growing chicks. Poultry Sci. 23:49-57. . Hill, F. W...M. L. Scott,L. C. Norris and G. F. Heuser, 1944. Deficiency of unidentified vitamins in practical chick rations. Poultry Sci. 23:253254. . Luckey, T. D., G. M. Briggs, Jr., C. A. Elvehjem, 1944. The use of Streptococcus lactis R. for the measurement of folic acid. Jour. Biol. Chem. 152: 157-167.