Nutritional Diseases of Poultry

A FAIRLY LARGE NUMBER of different elements and compounds are required for the normal nutrition of poultry. If one or more of them are not present in the diet in adequate quantity, or if certain ones are present in an unsuitable ratio, there is a distui'bance of nutritiori, or of the functioning of the body, which may be referred to as a nutritional disease. Other nutritional diseases may result from harmful elements or compounds in the diet. Knowledge in the field of nutritional diseases of poultry is in a state of active change. That which is believed to be true today may be disproved tomorrow, or, as perhaps more often happens, may prove to be only part of the truth. In several instances an abnormal condition that was originally thought to be the result of a single nutritional deficiency has been found to result from a multiple deficiency. A good example is polyneuritis in the chicken. At one time the cause of this condition was believed to be a deficiency of vitamin Bj, and this vitamin was—and 'still is—referred to as the antineuritic vitamin and was given the name "aneurin." It is now known that the condition originally described as polyneuritis gallinarum was produced by diets deficient in vitamins A, E, and G and pantothenic acid as Tvell as in vitamin Bi. Moreover, it has been shown that a deficiency of vitamin Bi alone does not produce nerve degeneration in the chicken, although it does have other serious effects on the nerves.