QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Holmes, A. D. Articles by Campbell, P. A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Holmes, A. D. Articles by Campbell, P. A.

The Vitamin A Reserve of Embryo and Baby Chicks

Two Charts

The E. L. Patch Company, Research Laboratories, Boston

Percy A. Campbell

Eastern States Farmers' Exchange, Research Department, Springfield, Mass.

Data concerning the vitamin A stores of embryo and young chicks have been accumulated by assaying the livers from 100 chick embryos and 298 young chicks. Since the unabsorbed egg yolk is a rich source of vitamin A these were assayed.

The livers from forty embryo chicks at the eighteenth day of incubation weighted 0.51 gm. and contained 12.5 per cent of fat and 7 blue units of vitamin A. The unabsorbed yolk weighed 14.3 gm. and contained 26.7 per cent fat and 80 blue units.

The livers from thirty 6-hour-old chicks weighed 0.89 gm. contained 17.2 per cent fat and had a reserve of 12 blue units of vitamin A. The corresponding values for the unabsorbed yolk were, weight 8.3 gm., fat 24.2 per cent and 58 blue units of vitamin A.

The average weight of livers from 24-hour-old chicks was 1.10 gm., the fat and vitamin contents were 18.8 per cent and 19 blue units, respectively. The values for the unabsorbed yolks were weight 5.1 gm., fat 18.4 per cent and 44 blue units of vitamin A.

Two lots of forty baby chicks were obtained from two sources. Groups of ten chicks were killed at 24-hour intervals. The body weight of the chicks decreased continuously until feeding was commenced. During the first 4 or 5 days of life the weight of the livers and their vitamin A content increased but the fat content of the livers and the weight, fat and vitamin A content of the unabsorbed yolks decreased. The rapid increase in the vitamin A content of the livers of chicks following hatching is doubtless influenced by the large store of vitamin A present in the egg yolks.