Effects of u.v. irradiation of very young chickens on growth and bone development

Six experiments were conducted to study the effects of exposure of young chickens to u.v. radiation. Chickens were fed a cholecalciferol (D3)-deficient diet and exposed to u.v. radiation from fluorescent lights giving total radiance (285-365 nm) at 0.15 m of 99.9 mJ/s per m(2). In Expt 1, chickens had increased body weight, bone ash and plasma Ca and decreased incidence of rickets and tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) when exposed to fluorescent light radiation 24 h per d, 24 h every 2 d, or 24 h every 3 d starting with exposure on day 1 after hatching. However, when not exposed on day 1, but on days 4, 7, 10, 13 and 16, the bone ash was reduced, and the incidence of TD and rickets was increased, compared with chickens exposed on day 1 after hatching. When chickens were exposed at 1 d of age to radiation from two lamps, each of which gave a radiance (285-365 nm) at 0.26 m of 856 mJ/s per m(2), both the length of time of radiation and location of the lamps (above or below the chicken) influenced the response as measured by body weight, bone ash, plasma Ca and incidence of rickets. When chickens that received a TD-inducing diet were exposed to 30 min u.v. radiation from below at 1 d of age they developed significantly less TD than did those not exposed when fed either 27.5 or 55.0 microg D3/kg diet.