Effect of a High Level of Dietary Ascorbic Acid on Egg Quality

Dietary supplementation of ascorbic acid to laying hens has produced variable and inconsistent results on hen performance and egg quality (Thornton and Moreng, 1958, 1959; Harms and Waldroup, 1961; Pepper et al., 1961; Hunt and Aitken, 1962; Sullivan and Kingan, 1962). Most of these studies involved heat stressed birds and the levels of ascorbic acid fed varied from about 22 to 55 mg. per kg. of feed. Improvement in interior egg quality as measured by Haugh units was reported in only one study (Thornton and Moreng, 1958) but this result was not repeatable during the subsequent year (Thornton and Moreng, 1959). The experiment reported here was a preliminary investigation concerned with the influence of a very high level of dietary ascorbic acid upon layer performance and egg quality of unstressed birds. Seventy-two Colorado Agriculture Experiment Station randombred strain of S. C. White Leghorn pullets 25 weeks of age were randomly…