20 CONTROL BULLETIN NO. 157 



VITAMIN A IN MIXED FEEDS 



It is taken for granted that all mixed feed manufacturers use formulas that 

 provide for adequate amounts of vitamin A in their feeds. Therefore, unless a 

 manufacturer unknowingly is using vitamin A oils, dry vitamin A supplements or 

 alfalfa meals that are seriously below the expected potencies in vitamin A, it may 

 be presumed his feeds contain somewhat over the recommended levels of vitamin 

 A when manufactured. 



Unfortunately, so far as the ultimate consumers — the cattle, swine, poultry 

 and dogs — are concerned, the words "when manufactured" sometimes may mean 

 very little. Our inspector has found poultry feeds still in the dealer's warehouse 

 four, six, and eight or more months after manufacture. 



When informed that a sample of his dog food was found almost devoid of 

 vitamin A, one manufacturer replied that the dog food in question had been shipped 

 to the dealer about two years previously and had contained more than the guar- 

 anteed amount of vitamin A when shipped. This information was of little value 

 to the dogs that ate the food. 



Such instances are not usual, but they occur much more frequently than they 

 should under good merchandising practice for products of this kind. It is the feed 

 manufacturer's responsibility to exercise enough control over the movement of 

 his goods so that they will not get sidetracked anywhere along the way from the 

 plant to the consumer. The length of time the feed is in the dealer's warehouse 

 should not be great enough to cause serious loss of any of the essential nutritional 

 factors. 



So far as vitamin A is concerned, the pertinent question is "How much does 

 the feed contain when fed?" In an effort to answer this question, at least partially, 

 the Control Service analyzed a number of poultry and dog feeds for the content of 

 this vitamin. Since these samples were taken from dealers' stocks it is probable 

 that in some cases there was still a considerable period of time between the date 

 the samples were taken and the date the feed was actually fed to poultry or dogs. 

 Consequently, it may be assumed that further loss of vitamin A occurred. Vita- 

 min A determinations were made only on samples taken after February 1, 1953 ; 

 therefore, these samples do not represent the products of all manufacturers. 



To provide a basis for comparison between the vitamin A values found and 

 those recommended by feed nutritionists, the following data taken from the New 

 England College Conference Formulas and from the National Research Council 

 recommendations are presented. 



*Recommended Levels of Vitamin A. U.S. P. Units per Pound. 



Starter & Broiler 



N. E. College Conference 4,300 



National Research Council 2,000 



*Total Ration Basis. 



The New England College Conference recommendations are specifically for the 

 high efficiency feeds with a high carbohydrate and low fiber content. The recom- 

 mended levels are those in the formulas revised January 1953. 



