Thesis abstract:

The yolk contains the majority of vitamins and minerals required for chick embryonic development. The residual yolk sac is absorbed, prior to hatch, into the chick’s abdominal cavity, acting as a nutrient reserve. Via this reserve, birds can survive several days without feed or water, in practice until placement in a grow-out shed.

Chick embryos regulate the intake of minerals from the yolk via the yolk sac membrane. Recent work has suggested that the chick continues to regulate residual yolk Ca and P intake after hatch . Knowledge of absorption of other minerals is limited. The use of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) allows us to measure the concentrations of Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, Sr and Zn (yolk mineral analysis) in yolk samples. These minerals all have a role to play in chick development.