Some observations on the effect of dietary deficiency on infestation of chickens with the nematode Heterakis gallinae.

Abstract

There has recently been published a series of observations, based on experimental evidence, which goes to show that the course of an helmintic infestation may be significantly affected by the diet which is fed to the experimental animal. These results which have emanated mainly from Ackert and his colleagues (1929 and 1931) and from Foster & Cort (1931 and 1932), Hiraishi (1927 and 1928) and from Nagoya (1931) show that the vitamins are frequently significant factors affecting the development of Ascaridia, hookworms and Ascaris. In a later paper (1933), Ackert and others showed further that the type of amino-acids and the variety may also be factors influencing the development of Ascaridia lineata in chickens.

The present writer (1933) was not so successful when she used Heterakis gallinae in the absence of vitamin A in chickens but using the same worm in the absence, or at least the deficiency of mineral matter, she has obtained results which are strikingly successful.