Amelioration of pale bird syndrome in chicks by vitamin E and selenium.

Vitamin E and/or selenium supplementation of a corn-soybean diet fed to broiler chicks in floor pens ameliorated the effect of an outbreak of pale bird syndrome diagnosed when the chicks were 3 weeks old. Supplementation significantly reduced both mortality and the effects of disease on body weight gain. The added nutrients only partly overcame the effect of the disease on body weight gain when infected chicks were compared with uninfected chicks.