Effects of Dietary Gizzerosine on Calcium Content in the Femur of Chicks

Dietary gizzerosine and histamine stimulate the gastric secretion. If they moderately stimulate the gastric acid secretion, the dietary Ca may be solubilized and absorbed in the duodenum and the upper jejunum resulting in acceleration of calcification in the femur of young chicks. In order to certify this possibility, three experiments were conducted.In order to diminish the effect of inherited VD3 and make chicks susceptible gizzeosine, VD3-free diet was supplied.In experiment 1, to confirm the effect of gizzerosine, the chicks were fed the diets containing 2ppm of gizzerosine with or without 50μg of VD3/kg for 10 days. Contents of ash and Ca in the femur of chicks increased significantly only when gizzerosine was added to diets with VD3.In experiment 2, the effect of 200 ppm dietary histamine was compared with that of 2 ppm of gizzerosine. Chicks were fed the VD3-free basal diet for 19 days and then experimental diets for 7 days. On the gizzerosine diet. the Ca content in the femur increased, but not in the histamine diet compared to the control diet.In experiment 3, to reconfirm no effect of histamine on the contents of ash and Ca in the femur, chicks were fed the diet containing 2000 ppm of histamine for 14 days. The content of ash and Ca in the femur of chicks decreased.These results showed that supplementation of dietary gizzerosine with VD3 caused significant increase of ash and Ca contents in the femur, but no significant effect was observed on the dietary histamine.