Does the Practical Chick Ration Need Iron and Copper Additions to Insure Normal Hemoglobin Building?

Abstract

The recent work reported by Elvehjem and Hart1 demonstrating that day-old chicks, when placed on a restricted diet, invariably develop anemia, has introduced the question of the possible presence of anemia in chicks raised under practical conditions. A diet consisting of whole cow’s milk and alcohol extracted rice supplemented with lime and salt produced anemia in chicks in a period of 12 to 15 days when the chicks were kept in pens equipped with wire screen bottoms. The anemia produced on such a diet was readily relieved by additions of iron alone because the rice in the ration contained enough copper to supplement the added iron. However, when greater precautions were taken to eliminate the copper from the basal ration, the addition of pure iron was not effective until minute amounts of copper were also fed. This shows that iron needs to be supplemented with copper for hemoglobin synthesis in . . .