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The Minimum Vitamin A Requirement of the Fox

One Text Figure and One Plate (Five Figures)

Fish and Wildlife Service, U. S. Department of the Interior, and Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Experimental vitamin A deficiency in the fox is characterized by nervous disturbances — trembling and "cocking" of the head, periods of whirling and in some cases coma, xerophthalmia, widespread epithelial metaplasia, demyelinization of many nerve fibers and abortions. The earliest signs of a deficiency of vitamin A are the nervous symptoms. The growth of deficient animals while good at first, declined in the late stages. No specific effect of avitaminosis A was noted on the quality of the fur.

The minimum vitamin A requirement necessary to prevent the occurrence of the nervous symptoms in growing pups lies between 15 and 25 I. U. per kilogram of body weight per day. Storage of vitamin A did not occur in the liver until 50 to 100 I. U. of vitamin A per kilogram per day was fed.

Manuscript received 12 March 1942.