IX. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY 659 



A unique feature of acute pantothenic acid deficiency in the young chick 

 is the occurrence of a severe dermatitis in the corners of the mouth, often 

 extending under the lower mandible and to the nostrils. The dermatitis is 

 the first specific symptom seen, usually when the chicks are 14 to 21 days 

 old. The eyelids become granular and eventually stick together in severely 

 affected birds unless they are manually separated. Mild dermatitis between 

 the toes and on the upper surface of the foot may also occur, but, if so, 

 this is not generally seen until several days after appearance of the mouth 

 and eye symptoms. The foot symptoms may never appear in borderline 

 deficiencies. 



The dermatitis symptoms closely resemble those of a biotin deficiency in 

 the chick. Early reports of Norris and coworkers*^- ** in 1930 and 1931 de- 

 scribed symptoms chiefly of a biotin dermatitis in chicks, sometimes mis- 

 takenly attributed in the literature since then to be due mainly to a panto- 

 thenic acid deficiency. The deficiency described by these investigators was 

 produced, in part, by diets containing unheated egg white, which is now 

 known to cause a biotin deficiency. Distinction between the dermatitis of 

 pantothenic acid and of biotin deficiencies has been since described by Lease 

 and Parsons,^! Ringrose and Norris, ^^' ^"^ Lepkovsky and Jukes, ^^^ Hegsted 

 et aZ.,^^" and others. i" In true pantothenic acid deficiency the mouth and 

 eyelids are chiefly affected and the feet are involved to a minor extent, 

 whereas in a biotin deficiency the feet are severely affected before the oral 

 symptoms appear. 



Other signs of pantothenic acid deficiency in the chick include poor feath- 

 ers (which may become brittle and drop off),^"" lowered efficiency of feed 

 utilization,^"^ lowered pantothenic acid content (and no doubt coenzyme A) 

 of blood and tissues,"^ slow growth rate or weight loss, and, in severe cases, 

 incoordination, paralysis, and death at as early as 3 to 4 weeks of age.^^"^"^ 

 Although graying of hair has been associated with pantothenic acid defi- 

 ciency in certain other animals, no loss of feather pigment has been noted 

 in colored breeds of chicks. The feather depigmentation reported by Groody 

 and Groody in 1942^^^ attributed to a pantothenic acid deficiency, is un- 

 confirmed and was more likely due to inanition which itself may cause de- 

 pigmentation."* The positive control birds fed pantothenic acid in the 



10^ E. T. Stiller, S. A. Harris, J. Finkelstein, J. C. Keresztesy, and K. Folkers, J. 



Am. Chem. Soc. 62, 1785 (1940). 

 los A. T. Ringrose and L. C. Norris, /. Nutrition 12, 535 (1936). 

 103 S. Lepkovsky and T. H. Jukes, /. Biol. Chem. Ill, 119 (1935). 

 "0 D. M. Hegsted, J. J. Oleson, R. C. Mills, C. A. Elvehjem, and E. B. Hart, /. 



Nutrition 20, 599 (1940). 

 '11 T. H. Jukes, Biol. Symposia 12, 253 (1947). 



112 E. E. Snell, D. Pennington, and R. J. Williams, /. Biol. Chem. 133, 559 (1940). 



113 T. C. Groody and M. E. Groody, Science 95, 655 (1942). 

 11^ G. M. Briggs, Poultry Sci. 15, 41 (1946). 



