Biological Availability to Chicks of Manganese from Different Inorganic Sources

Abstract

A KNOWLEDGE of the biological availability of manganese from various inorganic sources is important since manganese is added routinely to most poultry diets and many sources of the element are available. Early research indicated that most chemical forms of manganese were of equal value to the chick (Schaible et al., 1938; and Gallup and Norris, 1939). However, Hennig et al. (1967) found that radioactivity as 54 MnCl2 was incorporated into the body of chicks to a greater extent than that supplied as 54 MnSO4 or 54 MnO2. Recent research from this laboratory (Watson et al., 1970) indicated that differences in the availability of manganese from different sources exist, and suggested an assay technique for measuring the biological availability of the element. The present studies were undertaken to test further the assay method suggested in the previous research and to compare the availability of manganese from several inorganic sources using this assay technique. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE