The Effect of Various Aluminum Compounds on Chick Performance

ALUMINUM is usually present in most. types of animal diets. The phosphate supplement can be a primary contributor of this element because the aluminum content of different sources may vary from trace amounts to as much as 3.5%. Some of the other dietary ingredients also contain alumi-num (Williams et al, 1942). Cox et al. (1931), Deobald and Elvehjem (1935), Insko et al. (1938) and Street (1942) reported on the adverse ef-fects of aluminum to various types of ani-mals. The cause of this effect probably ori-ginates in the digestive tract because little, if any, aluminum is absorbed (McCollum et al, 1928; MacKenzie, 1931). It has been attributed to the interference with phos-phorus absorption by the formation of in-soluble aluminum phosphate. This appears to be a logical explanation because Jones (1938) found that aluminum sulfate de-creased serum phosphatase and bone min-eral. This report describes experiments study-ing the effects of various aluminum com-pounds on chick performance