The Role of the Antidermatosis Vitamin and a New Water-soluble Growth Factor in the Nutrition of the Mature Fowl

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Abstract
In experimental work on the role of the antidermatosis vitamin in the nutrition of the mature fowl, an experimental diet deficient in the vitamin was developed by subjecting the cereal portion and the liver extract to prolonged dry heat treatment and the casein to special purification. This diet was shown to be adequate in vitamins A, B, B4, B6, D, E, G, K, and the antiencephalomalacia factor. Nicotinic acid was found either to be present in the diet or else not needed in avian nutrition. The hen diet modified to make it adaptable for feeding chicks was found, when supplemented with the antidermatosis vitamin, to be deficient in another factor required for chick growth, not identical with any of the known vitamins. The new factor was shown to be destroyed by prolonged dry heat treatment, stable in yeast to autoclaving, water-soluble, adsorbable upon fuller's earth and present in milk, liver, yeast and fresh green grass. Both the antidermatosis vitamin and the new factor were found to be necessary for reproduction in the domestic fowl. Supplementing the deficient diet with both these factors, however, failed to promote normal reproduction or to maintain the weight of the hens, but egg production was satisfactory. Whether these results were evidence that an insufficient quantity of the new factor was fed or that the experimental diet was deficient in another factor, or factors, required for reproduction and maintenance of weight, could not be determined from the evidence.