A Chronic Congenital Ataxia in Chicks Due to Manganese Deficiency in the Maternal Diet

Abstract

GALLUP and Norris (1937, 1939) presented results showing that manganese is essential for reproduction in the domestic fowl. The same discovery was made independently by Lyons and Insko (1937). These workers observed that a few of a small number of chicks which hatched from the eggs of hens fed a diet deficient in manganese were afflicted with head retractions similar to those of chicks suffering from thiamin deficiency. Byerly, Titus, Ellis and Landauer (1935) also occasionally observed head retractions in newly hatched chicks suffering from a previously unrecognized nutritional disease characterized chiefly by shortness of the bones. Most of the disease was observed in the chicks hatched from the eggs of hens fed a diet containing 15 percent of dried yeast cells, and little in those hatched from the eggs of hens fed diets containing either 15 percent of rice bran or 15 percent of wheat germ. It is improbable, .