Selenium-Arsenic Antagonism in Poultry

Abstract

IT HAS been shown that the inclusion of seleniferous grain in the rations of laying hens will reduce hatchability of fertile eggs and cause deformed embryos (Franke and Tully, 1935). Similar results have been produced by injecting small amounts of inorganic selenium salts into fertile eggs (Franke et al., 1936). More recently it has been found that arsenic will counteract the toxic action of selenium in rats (Moxon, 1938; Moxon and DuBois, 1939; and DuBois, Moxon, and Olson, 1940), in hogs (Moxon, 1941a), in dogs (Rhian and Moxon, 1943), and in cattle.1 Arsenic has also been found to be quite effective in counteracting the toxicity of selenium in the diet of growing chicks (Moxon, 1941b). In connection with studies on the mechanism of selenium-arsenic antagonism it was desirable to determine whether arsenic would prevent the reduction in hatchability of chickens eggs when selenium was included in the ration of laying . . .