The Biologic Response of Chickens to Certain Organic Acids and Salts with Particular Reference to Their Effect on Ossification

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Abstract
No organic acid, its sodium or potassium salt, or a mixture of the acid and its salt when added to a diet that is rachitogenic for chicks was found to protect the birds from rickets as similar mixtures are known to do for rats. Most of the cationogens studied were toxic to the chick. Sodium citrate and acetate caused the precipitation of an insoluble “salt” in the animal body. When citric acid and sodium chloride were fed in amounts equivalent to a lethal dose of sodium citrate no such toxic manifestations were noted. Potassium citrate is less toxic than sodium citrate. When the two were fed together in an equal molar ratio the chick was “protected” from the greater toxicity of the sodium citrate. Ammonium carbonate-ammonium chloride mixture when added to a non-rachitogenic ration for chicks did not produce rickets, as measured by bone ash and serum phosphatase values, in contrast to results that have been reported for rats on diets which were non-rachitogenic because of a favorable mineral ratio.