Niacin Deficiency in the Chick as Influenced by Antibiotics

Abstract

DEFICIENCY symptoms induced in chicks by the omission of biotin or folic acid from a purified diet, were reported by Coates et al. (1951) to be alleviated by penicillin supplementation. Penicillin was without effect on deficiencies of riboflavin, thiamine, pantothenic acid or pyridoxine but accentuated the deficiency of niacin. In contrast, Biely and March (1952) have presented evidence that aureomycin spares dietary niacin. A corn-casein type of diet was used by them while Coates and co-workers used a purified diet with dextrin as the carbohydrate.There are data indicating that aureomycin and penicillin function equally well in alleviating riboflavin deficiency in the rat, while for thiamine deficiency penicillin was more effective than aureomycin and the reverse held true for pantothenic acid, Lih and Baumann (1951). The data presented by Sauberlich (1952) are substantially in agreement with the above. Sauberlich also made the observation that when thiamine, riboflavin or pyridoxine were …