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The biologically active form of vitamin D₃, calcitriol (1,25-(OH)₂D₃), plays a key role in mineral homeostasis and bone formation and dietary vitamin D₃deficiency is a major cause of bone disorders in poultry. Supplementary dietary cholecalciferol (25-hydroxyvitamin D, 25-OH), the precursor of calcitriol, is commonly employed to combat this problem; however, dosage must be carefully determined as excess dietary vitamin D can cause toxicity resulting in a decrease in bone calcification, hypercalcinemia and renal failure. Despite much research on the therapeutic administration of dietary vitamin D in humans, the relative sensitivity of avian species to exogenous vitamin D has not been well defined. In order to determine the effects of exogenous 1,25-(OH)₂D₃during avian osteogenesis, chicken bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) were exposed to varying doses of 1,25-(OH)₂D₃during in vitro osteogenic differentiation and examined for markers of early proliferation and osteogenic induction. Similar to humans and other mammals, poultry BM-MSCs were found to be highly sensitive to exogenous 1,25-(OH)₂D₃with super pharmacological levels exerting significant inhibition of mineralization and loss of cell proliferation in vitro. Strain related differences were apparent, with BM-MCSs derived from layers strains showing a higher level of sensitivity to 1,25-(OH)₂D₃than those from broilers. These data suggest that understanding species and strain specific sensitivities to 1,25-(OH)₂D₃is important for optimizing bone health in the poultry industry and that use of avian BM-MSCs are a useful tool for examining underlying effects of genetic variation in poultry., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Poultry Science Association.)