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Periodic B-vitamin Supplementation of Growing Rats Fed a Vitamin-free Diet

Department of Animal Husbandry, University of California, Davis, California

The effects on rats fed a vitamin-free diet orally supplemented with a complete array of B-vitamins at various intervals of time were investigated. Feed intakes, weight gains and final body fat percentages declined as the interval between successive vitamin doses was increased. Reduced partial efficiencies of feed utilization with decreasing frequency of vitamin administration indicate a metabolic restriction in vitamin availability as the interval between doses is increased. With diets lacking thiamine, pyridoxine or both vitamins, the provision of the missing vitamin or vitamins at intervals of 4 days was not adequate to maintain feed intakes and weight gains of rats. Paired-feeding trials indicate that, apart from a metabolic restriction in vitamin availability, the periodic provision of B-vitamins to rats has a considerable depressant effect on feed intakes.

Manuscript received 1 July 1963.