Influence of Vitamin B6 Deficiency on Certain Serum Components in Mature Female Chickens

THERE are few reports on the effects of vitamin B6 deficiency in the mature female chicken. Cravens et al. (1943) were the first to establish the need of this vitamin for egg production and hatchability. They later established (Cravens et al., 1946) specific requirement values for hatchability by adding pyridoxine HCl to a purified diet of estimated vitamin B6 content. Fuller et al. (1961) confirmed the previous findings and showed that severe pyridoxine deficiency resulted in complete cessation of laying. Goswami and Robblee (1958) studied glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase activity (GOT) in tissues of chicks fed diets off varying pyridoxine content. There was a significant reduction of GOT activity in the blood, liver and heart of the birds fed the pyridoxine deficient diet. Daghir and Balloun (1963) reported that the serum off chicks receiving a vitamin B6 deficient diet had about 45 percent of the serum GOT (SGOT) activity of control birds …