The Variability of Protein Supplements in the Hen’s Diet in Supplying the Unidentified Factor or Factors Essential for Chick Growth

Abstract

SEVERAL investigators have shown that a chick’s viability and its storage of the vitamins at hatching time are influenced by the intake of these specific essential nutrients by the parent stock. It is well established that some other as yet unidentified factor (or factors) is transmitted from the hen to the egg and subsequently to the newly hatched chick. When placed on a diet deficient in this constituent, the chick’s ability to grow at a normal rate is dependent upon an adequate storage of this unknown. Bird and associates (1946) found that the viability of chicks was low when hens were fed a soybean oil meal supplemented diet, adequate in all known factors. Mortality of chicks from hens receiving a soybean oil meal diet was 38.0 percent, whereas, hens receiving this diet plus 5.0 percent cow manure or sardine meal produced chicks with a mortality rate of 12.0 and 11.0 .