Failure of ferrous sulphate to inactivate free gossypol in diets for chickens

SCHAIBLE and co-workers (1934) re-ported that free or bound gossypol is a cause of the olive, brown, and chocolate discolorations in the yolks of eggs from hens fed cottonseed products. One or two percent ferrous sulphate protected against the discolorations when rations contained as much as 40 percent cottonseed meal, but the gossypol content of the meal is not stated. Fletcher and co-workers (1953) fed New Hampshire hens a diet containing a mixture of equal parts of hydraulic and solvent-extracted cottonseed meals to fur-nish.03 percent free gossypol to the diet, and then stored the eggs at about 34 de-grees F. for periods varying from 60 t