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Four experiments were conducted with laying hens to examine the effectiveness of non-protein nitrogen supplementation. Significant increases in egg production were obtained with three experiments employing diammonium citrate, ammonium sulfate, and diammonium phosphate as non-protein nitrogen sources. Non-essential nitrogen consumptions of hens fed diets which responded to non-protein nitrogen supplementation were below 1.4 gm./day. The non-protein nitrogen additions increased the non-essential nitrogen intakes to 1.4-1.9 gm./day. The results of these experiments suggest that the conversion of essential amino nitrogen to non-essential nitrogen by hens fed the diets in these studies was relatively inefficient and that the non-protein nitrogen additions exerted a "sparing" effect on essential amino nitrogen.These data suggest that the minimum amount of essential amino nitrogen required for egg production levels of 70-75% was in the order of 1.1 gm./day with the amino acid balances employed. The non-essential nitrogen requirement appears to be 1.4-1.9 gm./day, of which 0.4 gm. could be furnished by non-protein nitrogen sources.

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The effects of three vitamin B6 analogs were studied in young adult and weanling rats. The 2-ethyl analog was the most active. It produced higher growth rates, an average feed efficiency equal to the control and elevated liver glycogen levels. Xanthurenic acid excretion remained low with the 2-ethyl analog and pyridoxine in the diet and plasma amino acid concentration was low. Response to the 2-n-propyl analog was similar to that of a B6-deficient diet, with a large increase in xanthurenic acid excretion. Rats receiving the 2-isopropyl analog were intermediate between the ethyl group and B6-deficient animals in all parameters measured. These in vivo results parallel those reported in the in vitro yeast pyridoxine dehydrogenase enzyme system. The ethyl pyridoxine analog was the most active of all the analogs in the yeast dehydrogenase system, in supporting growth and in maintaining normal xanthurenic acid excretion in the rat.

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