Ascorbic acid as a dietary supplement for white leghorn hens under conditions of climatic stress

Effect of dietary ascorbic acid on the performance of laying hens under warm environmental conditions

“…A lower mortality rate in laying hens supplemented with AA was indicated by Perek and Kendler (1963) and Herrick and Nockels (1969), but these results were not significant. There is also some evidence which shows that AA supplemented diet is beneficial in reducing body temperature (Thornton, 1962;Lyle and Moreng, 1968).…”

“…In the present experiment egg production in a warm climate did not decline so rapidly in the supplemented birds, but there was no improvement in birds kept at lower temperatures. Perek and Kendler (1963), using White Leghorn hens in the extreme climatic conditions of the Jordan Valley, demonstrated a highly significant increase in egg yield in the treated birds in one experiment, but did not obtain the same level of response in a later experiment. Perek and Kendler (1963) Rauch (1964) Verma and Sharma (1967) Hunt and Aitkin (1962) De Groote and Reyntens (1967) Non-significant trend Ahmad el al.…”

“…The results reported so far are not conclusive and are sometimes contradictory. For example, Perek and Kendler (1963) obtained an increased egg yield with AA supplementation in hot climates but found the vitamin had no effect on shell thickness. On the other hand, Thornton and Moreng (1958) observed an increase in shell thickness in AAtreated birds when environmental temperatures were high but reported no beneficial effect of the vitamin on egg yield.…”

Influence of Ascorbic Acid on Egg Quality

“…Ascorbic acid supplementation of the diet of laying hens reduced the incidence of stress [1, 5, 10, 13], it increased the production and improved egg quality [2, 3,6,7,8,11,12]. Though, KECHICK, SYKES [4] did not find any relationship between ascorbic acid supplementation of rations and productive and qualitative parameters of the produced eggs.…”

Beneficial effects of dietary ascorbic acid supplement on hens subjected to ochratoxin A toxicosis under normal and high ambient temperatures

“…However, under stress conditions there is a reduction in tissue AA concentration (Freeman 1967;Cheng et al 1990 (Ahmad et al 1967), Haugh unit score at 200 ppm (Cheng et al 1990), and survivability at25 , 7 5 , or 400 ppm (Perek and Kendler 1963). In contrast, other investigations did not achieve any tesponse in production or egg parameters to long-term dietary supplements of AA at 1200 or 3300 ppm at normal temperafure (Dorr and Nockels 1971) or dietary supplements of sodium ascorbate aI 22-1000 ppm under hot summer weather Heywang et al 1964 …”