Effect of dietary ascorbic acid on iron utilization in the growing chick

Day-old male broiler chicks were fed for three weeks a purified casein diet with the addition of different levels of iron and ascorbic acid. Dietary ascorbic acid fed at 0.4% increased the hemoglobin concentration and total body iron retention when the diets fed were low in iron (23 p.p.m.). At 0.1% level in the diet, ascorbic acid caused an increase in total body iron retention in chicks fed diets marginal in iron (40 p.p.m.) and did not affect either parameter in chicks fed diets adequate in iron (100 p.p.m.).