Studies on Chloride Deficiency in Chicks

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Abstract
Chloride deficiency was produced by feeding young chicks a purified diet which contained 190 mg Cl/kg diet. Chicks fed this diet exhibited extremely poor growth rate, high mortality, hemoconcentration, dehydration and a reduced blood chloride. In addition, deficient chicks showed nervous symptoms which appeared to be characteristic for chloride deficiency. Supplementation of the basal diet with 1200 mg chloride resulted in optimal growth rate and prevented the occurrence of deficiency symptoms. Although excess sodium and potassium did not affect the growth rate of deficient chicks, these cations increased the incidence of mortality and nervous symptoms. Bromide (676 to 1352 mg/kg) added to the basal diet partially counteracted most of the symptoms of chloride deficiency except the nervous symptoms. Higher levels of bromide were of no additional value. Iodide (537 to 1074 mg/kg) depressed growth rate but did not interfere with the typical chloride growth response curve. However, the data on incidence of mortality and nervous symptoms suggested an interaction between iodide and chloride. Fluoride (268 mg/kg) had no effect on the course of chloride deficiency.