Abstract
The calcium metabolism of the laying bird is probably more intense than that of any other organism. The laying hen, for example, secretes on the egg shell 1.6–2.4 g calcium, in the form of the carbonate, in a period of 20 hours or so, most of it during the last 16 hours of the shell-calcification process. The total plasma volume of an average hen is 100 ml and the average level of total plasma calcium is 25 mg/100 ml and it may thus be calculated that a weight of calcium equal to the total amount in circulation at any one instant is removed from the blood every 10–15 minutes during the main period of the formation of the egg shell. When the rate of calcium absorption from the gut is less than the rate at which calcium is deposited on the shell the balance is derived from the skeleton, and during the early hours of the morning the bulk of calcium is supplied from the latter source.
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© 1966 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg
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Taylor, T.G., Williams, A., Kirkley, J. (1966). Changes in the Activities of Plasma Acid and Alkaline Phosphatases during Egg Shell Calcification in the Domestic Fowl. In: Fleisch, H., Blackwood, H.J.J., Owen, M. (eds) Calcified Tissues 1965. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85841-3_36
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85841-3_36
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