Vitamin E deficiency in the Japanese quail.

Japanese quail were maintained on a low vitamin E soybean meal diet for 35 weeks. Percent fertile eggs was significantly decreased after 20 weeks and hatchability was severely depressed. Free tocopherol in the plasma of both sexes was markedly reduced in the deficient birds. Plasma creatine phosphokinase was unaffected by the low vitamin E treatment. Although no other clinical symptoms were observed, dietary vitamin E (2 IU/kg diet) was inadequate to support normal reproduction.