The Effect of Different Levels of Manganese and Different Amounts of Vitamin D in the Diet of Hens and of Pullets

Abstract

MANGANESE was first recognized as an essential element in poultry nutrition by Wilgus and co-workers (1936, 1937). Almost simultaneously Lyons and Insko (1937) reported that the mineral was necessary for hatchability and for the prevention of nutritional chondrodystrophy. The literature on this subject is very ably reviewed by Wilgus, et al. (1939). This review pointed out that a manganese deficiency in poultry resulted in abnormal bone development (perosis), nutritional chondrodystrophy, ataxia, inferior growth, failure to maintain weight, lowered egg production, decreased hatchability, reduced egg-breaking strength and decreased egg-shell ash. The review also enumerated that there was a lower concentration of manganese in the egg, the embryo, the bones and certain organs of the body when a manganese deficient diet was fed. It appeared that the quantity of this mineral required by hens was from 40 to 50 parts per million.Golding, Schiable and Davidson (1940) studied the manganese requirements of .