Effectiveness of ascorbic acid and chromium in counteracting the negative effects of dietary vanadium on interior egg quality.

Four experiments were conducted to investigate further the effects of V on hen performance and egg quality as well as on the ability of ascorbic acid and Cr to counteract the deleterious effects of V on interior egg quality. At 10 ppm, added V significantly reduced albumin quality as measured by Haugh units; and at 30 ppm and 100 ppm, respectively, significantly reduced rate of lay and feed consumption and also increased body weight loss. As measured by shell breaking strength or shell thickness, shell quality was not affected significantly by V (added to a maximum of 100 ppm). Ascorbic acid (100 to 5,000 ppm) effectively protected the hens from the reduction in albumen quality resulting from the addition of 10 ppm of V to the basal diet. Hen performance and egg quality were not significantly affected by adding 10 or 50 ppm of Cr to a diet with 10 ppm of added V, nor by adding 30 or 150 ppm of Cr to a diet with 30 ppm of added V. The added Cr failed to counteract the depressing effects of V on the Haugh units recorded, regardless of the composition of the basal diet.