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This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding diets containing corn, oats, or barley to commercial White Leghorn chickens. Isocaloric diets were used with 20 or 40% of the corn replaced by oats or barley. Diets were fed with or without grit to 15 wk of age in a factorial design. Feeding oats increased gastrointestinal tract and gizzard weight at 12 wk of age when compared with the corn diet. Grit also increased gizzard weight at this age. Increased gizzard size, due to oats, persisted to 20 wk of age. The 20% oat diet resulted in earlier mean age at first egg. Metabolizable energy determinations of the corn, 40% oats, or 40% barley diets, using males grown on the same or contrasting diets, were not affected by growing treatments.

Two experiments were conducted for 22 or 24 days in which turkey poults were fed three forms of a starting feed with or without chlortetracycline and furazolidone. The poult starter was fed as unconditioned mash, as mash conditioned by the Anaerobic Pasteurizing Conditioning (APC) system, and as crumbled pellets made from the mash conditioned by the APC system. Compared with the growth of poults fed unconditioned mash without the antibiotic, early growth was improved in poults fed conditioned mash, or the mash supplemented with antibiotic. No additional growth response was observed in poults fed mash which was both supplemented with antibiotic and conditioned. Pelleting and subsequent crumbling of the conditioned mash increased the growth and feed efficiency. Coomassie Blue dye binding of the 0.2% KOH extract of the feeds, a measure of protein damage, was similar in the unconditioned and steam conditioned mash and in crumbled pellets made from conditioned mash. The results indicate that the nutritive value of poult starter feed was not reduced by processing in the APC system.

Solvent-extracted soya-bean flakes were autoclaved for 0–180 min at 121°C and evaluated by three chick feeding trials and several tests in vitro. Improvement in growth from short periods of heating was related to reduced trypsin inhibitor or urease activity which were highly correlated ( r = 0.96). After extraction with 0.2% KOH, protein solubility determined by the Kjeldahl nitrogen method was highly correlated ( r = 0.99) with that determined by the Coomassie Blue dye-binding method. Protein solubility decreased as the heating duration was increased. A high correlation was also found between Orange G binding and protein solubility ( r = 0.97); and between Coomassie Blue dye-binding and Orange G binding ( r = 0.98). Beyond the initial improvement in growth caused by the destruction of growth inhibitors, the degree of overheating measured by protein solubility, Orange G binding, or formol titration agreed well with decreased growth of chicks. Pancreas weight of −1 body weight is a relatively sensitive test of properly processed soya-bean meal. The effect of overheating soya-bean meal in reducing the growth of chickens was greater in a diet containing 1.2% lysine than when lysine was increased to 1.4%. Coomassie Blue dye-binding and either trypsin inhibitor or urease activity are rapid and convenient methods for evaluating soya-bean meal.

A rapid, simple method is described which may be useful for determination of heat-damage to proteins in processed foods. It uses the Coomassie Blue dye-binding (DB) capacity of food proteins extract-able in 0.2% KOH, with lysozyme as reference standard. The presence of glucose or lactose was essential to reduce DB capacity of casein on autoclaving. The DB capacity, on dried basis, of fat-free milk, whole egg, egg white, or blood was reduced rapidly with autoclaving, but not that of gelatin and gluten. The DB capacity of extracted soybean flakes, mung beans and black-eyed pea beans was reduced gradually as the time of autoclaving was increased.

This study was conducted to assess the effect of the coccidiostat halofuginone (Stenorol) on growth, feed consumption, and survival of Chukar partridge. Halofuginone was fed to three replicates (14 chicks per replicate) of chukar chicks from 2 to 7 d of age at levels of 0, 1.5, 3.0, 6.0 and 12 ppm. Mortality from 2 to 7 d was 0, 0, 0, 11, and 21 birds, respectively, by treatment. Seven-day body weight showed a significant linear decrease with increasing halofuginone level (P0.01). On the 7th d, replicates receiving 6.0 and 12.0 ppm halofuginone were transferred to unmedicated feed for the remainder of the test due to excessive mortality. The other groups were continued until 6 wk of age. At 6 wk, chicks fed 6 or 12 ppm halofuginone from 2 to 7 d and then unmedicated feed did not differ in body weight from those fed the unmedicated control diet. A significant difference in mortality was not observed among the other three treatment groups to 6 wk of age. A linear depression in 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-wk body weight with increasing halofuginone level was observed within the first three treatment levels (P0.05). It was concluded that 1.5 ppm halofuginone depressed growth of young chukars and that 6 ppm resulted in increased mortality.

Six experiments were conducted to study the effect of diet on growth and plasma ascorbic acid in chickens. D-Glucuronolactone failed to improve growth with either a crude yeast-fish meal diet or a purified diet based on casein and gelatin. With the purified diet, D-glucuronic acid and L-gulonolactone also failed to improve growth and did not influence plasma ascorbic acid levels. Dietary ascorbic acid improved growth of chicks with a purified diet in most cases, but not with a corn-soybean diet. Meat meal and fish meal caused slight increases in plasma ascorbic acid, whereas soybean meal, safflower meal, and cottonseed meal caused greater increases when used in a purified diet. Gulonolactone oxidase activity in the kidney was not different between chicks fed the purified or the corn-soybean diets, but was reduced by 0.1% dietary ascorbic acid. The mechanism for the increase in plasma ascorbic acid with the addition of soybean meal and other plant protein sources to the diet is not known.

1. Meat strain chicks were fed on diets containing 600 g rice bran/kg for the 7 to 8 week period required to reach broiler weight. 2. Extrusion cooking of rice bran resulted, in improved chick weight gain and food efficiency for the first two weeks of feeding, but this advantage was lost by the end of the feeding period. 3. Addition of 10 g calcium/kg to the stabilised rice bran diet prevented the decline in performance after two weeks of age, and birds fed on this diet continued to gain at an increasing rate until the end of the experiment. 4. Calcium supplementation of stabilised rice bran diets produced significantly greater gains and superior food utilisation compared to stabilised rice bran diets without added calcium. 5. Calcium supplementation did not affect weight gain of chicks fed on diets containing raw rice bran. 6. Taste panel evaluation of meat from birds fed on diets containing raw rice bran, stabilised rice bran, or no rice bran indicated a significant preference in only one combi...

When rice bran was used at 60% of the diet to replace corn as an energy source in diets containing fish meal or soybean meal, growth of chicks was depressed by approximately 30%. There was no evidence that there was interference in trace mineral availability. The growth-depressing factor could not be extracted with hexane or methanol. The addition of casein or soybean oil to the diet containing 60% rice bran caused no improvement in growth. Autoclaving or steaming the rice bran caused a marked improvement in growth indicating a destruction of the growth-depressing factor. The weight of the pancreas of chicks fed rice bran was significantly greater than that of control birds. The growth-depressing effect of rice bran was noted both in diets containing fish meal and soybean meal as the source of protein.

Four meat and bone meal samples were analyzed for methionine, tryptophan, available lysine, and Orange-G dye binding and were fed to chicks as the major source of protein in starch or cereal-based diets. It was difficult to correlate chick growth with chemical indices, but the relative growth was similar irrespective of cereal supplement. In an additional trial, nine meat and bone meal samples gave essentially similar rankings whether used in milo, wheat, or corn based diets.

Five experiments were conducted in which various levels of nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA or its salt, Na2NTA) disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (Na2EDTA) and calcium (Ca) were fed to young chicks, young quail and adult quail. The duration of trials was from 1 to 28 days of age for chicks, 7 to 49 for young quail and 167 to 210 for adult quail. Feeding 0.71% NTA or an equimolar level of Na2NTA caused a moderate decrease in chicks weight and Na2EDTA caused a drastic decrease in body weight of chicks and adult quail. Feeding Na2EDTA caused greater mortality in chicks receiving a low Ca diet than a higher level of Ca. Plasma Ca levels were significantly increased by NTA in young quail and by Na2NTA in adult quail, in contrast, they were significantly decreased by Na2EDTA in adult quail. Dietary NTA promoted greater tibia mineralization (ash/dry matter) in growing chicks. Dietary NTA increased the deposition of zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn) in the chicks tibia, but, it decreased magnesium (Mg). On the other hand, Na2EDTA caused a significant decrease in Zn and Fe in the chicks tibia and a significant increase in Mn. Coturnix are less sensitive than chickens in responding to dietary chelates.

The nutritional values of one variety of white and four varieties of colored beans were determined using a quail growth assay. The beans contained 7.2 to 7.5% moisture, 3.7 to 6.0% ash, 2.1 to 2.7% lipid, and 21.9 to 25.3% protein. The amino acid profile of the beans was also determined. Trypsin inhibitor activity was highest in the bean varieties of Small White and Black Turtle Soup (89.8 and 90.7 trypsin inhibitor activity/mg, respectively). The nutritional value of the Small White bean in a test diet containing 24% protein, without additional methionine, was superior to the colored beans. When .4% methionine was supplemented, this nutritional difference disappeared. The Small White bean elicited the poorest growth response when incorporated at a level of 70% in test diets containing 24% protein and .4% methionine. Air-dried residues of the Small White bean, extracted with either water or 80% methanol, were lethal to growing quail, adult quail, and growing rats. The addition of the freeze-dried extracts to an isolated soybean protein control diet improved the physical appearance of the quail without influencing their body weight.

Adult male chickens, which were maintained on a low dietary potassium intake for 11 weeks showed no gross abnormalities, but had significantly reduced feed intake and losses of body weight. Adult male chickens had a physiological capacity to increase the biological half life of their body potassium from 18 to 134 days when the dietary potassium was reduced from .32 to .02%. However, the deficient birds were unable to balance their intake with the excretion because of the obligatory loss of potassium. The relative specific activity of different tissues in adult male chickens determined at different time intervals after the intravenous injection of potassium-42 indicated that the plasma pool potassium had the highest turnover rate of potassium in the body. In decreasing order, it was followed by the skin, heart, liver, intestine, bone, and muscle. The daily balance of potassium in adult male chickens maintained under optimum and sub-optimum dietary potassium intake gave an estimated minimum requirement for this element of .06% of the diet.

1. Three experiments of 3 or 4 weeks’ duration were conducted with broilers fed on diets containing 60% of rice bran treated in various ways. 2. Autoclaving rice bran for 3 to 20 min significantly improved its feeding value as measured by growth rate of chicks; bran from parboiled rice was equivalent to the autoclaved rice bran and was not further improved by autoclaving. 3. The growth inhibition of rice bran is not due to its trypsin inhibitor activity. 4. Lipase activity in rice bran was destroyed by autoclaving or parboiling and may be a useful index to predict the adequacy of treatment to improve growth. 5. The metabolisable energy of the rice bran samples was about 12.55 kJ/g and was not influenced by treatment. 6. Ethoxyquin did not improve growth of chicks fed on diets containing rice bran and was less effective than autoclaving or parboiling in preventing the development of rancidity.

No statistically significant differences in egg production, changes in body weight, egg weights or Haugh units were observed if the White Leghorn hens were fed either the commercial type cottonseed meal or a meal which has undergone ammonia treatment to inactivate aflatoxins. If the broken-out eggs from the hens fed ammonia-treated meal were exposed to an atmosphere of ammonia, yolk discoloration similar to the one induced by gossypol was observed. Both the meals contained about the same level of free gossypol. This discoloration was not overcome by incorporating 4 parts of iron for every one part of free gossypol in the diet. The residual ammonia in the diet was not responsible for this discoloration. Exposure of broken-out eggs to ammonia vapor was essential to notice yolk discoloration and storage of these eggs for a month at room temperature caused no discoloration.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of different plant protein meals on the vitamin B6 requirement of broiler chicks. Soybean meal, cottonseed meal, and safflower meal were added to semipurified rations deficient in vitamin B6 to contribute 60% of the protein (Experiment 1) or 40 % of the protein (Experiment 2). The rest of the protein in the rations was supplied by isolated soy protein. Vitamin B6 was added at 0, .5, and 5.0 mg/kg levels. No response to vitamin B6 supplementation was noted in the first experiment in spite of marginally adequate vitamin B6 in soybean meal rations (3 mg/kg) and low levels of vitamin B6, in the cottonseed meal and safflower meal rations (1.7 and 1.9 mg/kg, respectively). When the vitamin B6, was further reduced to 2.1, 1.2, and 1.3 mg/kg for the soybean meal, cottonseed meal, and safflower meal rations, respectively (Experiment 2), a significant reduction in growth was noted in the group fed soybean meal with .5 mg vitamin B6 /kg. The type of protein significantly influenced the requirement of chicks for vitamin B6 since the soybean meal diet with more vitamin B6 needed more supplementation of vitamin B6 for optimum growth than the safflower meal or cottonseed meal containing diets. Serum glutamic oxaloacetic acid transaminase activities further supported the growth data.

Feed supplemented with furazolidone was fed to turkeys on a research farm near Modesto, CA. The birds fed furazolidone-medicated feed were housed in isolated pens in a manner to prevent any cross contamination from an adjoining treatment. Furazolidone-medicated feed was supplied to the ration for 14 days prior to withdrawal with two exceptions; the controls were not fed medicated feed, and a 400 g/ton treatment was fed for 24 hr prior to processing. Treatments, representing different withdrawal periods, ranged from 0 to 21 days. Two 400 g/ton treatments with 0-day withdrawal periods were included in the study. One of these treatments involved a 14-day medicated feeding period while the other was for 24 hr. All other treatments were fed medicated feed at the rate of 200 g/ton. Tissue samples from the processed birds included skin, fat, liver, kidney, as well as breast and thigh muscle. No detectable residues were found in any of the liver, kidney, fat, or muscle tissues at any of the withdrawal periods including the 0-day withdrawal groups. Skin tissues contained detectable furazolidone residues only in the 0-day withdrawal treatments, and even these levels were below the 2 ppb level.

Five experiments were conducted with growing chicks to determine the effectiveness of various materials in modifying the toxicity of vanadium. The toxicity of vanadium (as it is measured by growth depression and mortality) was much greater when vanadium was added to a semipurified diet than when it was added to a practical diet containing natural ingredients. When EDTA was added to diets containing 50 and 200 p.p.m. vanadium, the growth depression was reduced from 22.1% and 75.9% to 8.4% and 36.7% respectively, and the mortality was reduced from 80% to 20% among chicks fed 200 p.p.m. vanadium. The addition of 10% lactose to a diet containing 100 p.p.m. vanadium increased the growth depression from 41% to 76.2% and caused 80% mortality. Chromium added to diets containing 100 and 200 p.p.m. vanadium improved the growth and reduced the mortality.

Two experiments with factorial designs were conducted to study the interaction between dietary biotin and linoleate in male broiler chicks. Chicks were fed a purified basal diet containing varying levels of d-biotin (0, 200, or 400 micrograms/kg diet) and linoleate. In Experiment 1, chicks were fed the basal diet containing three levels of added linoleate (.5, 3.1, or 4.1% of diet) for each biotin level and in Experiment 2, four levels of linoleate were fed (.27, .98, 2.00, or 2.20% of diet). The average body weights of chicks fed biotin at 200 micrograms/kg of diet and .27 or .5% added linoleate were not different (P greater than .05) from those of chicks fed higher levels of biotin or linoleate supplements to the basal diets. Linoleate deficiency resulted in elevated omega-9 fatty acids (18:1 omega 9 and 20:3 omega 9) in liver and heart phospholipids. For liver phospholipids, linoleate deficiency led to reduced 18:2 omega 6, 20:3 omega 6, and 20:4 omega 6 but for heart phospholipids only 20:4 omega 6 was lowered. Biotin deficiency resulted in elevated 18:3 omega 6 in liver and heart lipids and decreased 20:3 omega 6 in liver phospholipids. Liver microsomes from biotin-deficient chicks contained increased 18:2 omega 6 and reduced 20:3 omega 6 compared with those of biotin-adequate chicks.

Four experiments were conducted with chicks to determine whether the heating of vegetable oil and its contamination with iron might have detrimental effects upon its use in chicken diets. Soybean oil and safflower oil heated at 230 C for 51 hr and linseed oil heated at 240 C for 24 hr gave reduced growth when fed to chickens at 20 percent of the diet. Heating soybean oil at 175 C for 51 hr had no detrimental effect. However, iron at 5000 ppm depressed growth significantly when fed in a low fat diet. The depression was greatly reduced when soybean oil was fed at 10 or 20% of the diet. A different lot of soybean oil was found to cause skin dermatitis and high mortality when fed at 20% of the diet due to its physical contamination on the skin.

The Acala C-9 variety of glandless cottonseed meal (GCSM) was tested for available gossypol in a 100-day feeding trial with laying hens. Corn-soybean diets incorporating GCSM at 10 and 20% were compared with diets formulated with Acala SJ-5, a commercially available cottonseed meal (CSM), at 10% and a control diet with no CSM. Each diet was fed to 25 hens. No detectable gossypol was found in the yolks of eggs from hens fed GCSM or the control diet, but gossypol was present when hens were fed the diet with CSM. Egg yolk discoloration in an ammonia atmosphere was noted in all of the eggs tested from the CSM-fed hens but only at a very low incidence in eggs from other groups. There were no differences between any of the four treatments in percent egg production, average egg weight, or hatchabihty. Broiler chicks were fed for 19 days diets with GCSM as the sole source of protein to determine the limiting amino acids. The diets contained 23% protein, 3200 kcal metabolizable energy/kg, and National Research Council levels of vitamins and minerals. Diets were supplemented with lysine, methionine, leucine, and isoleucine from 0 to .5% and were kept isonitrogenous with glutamic acid. Only lysine was limiting in GCSM for chick growth. Chick weights did not differ significantly from those fed an adequate reference diet if .3% lysine was added.

Amaranth seeds (Amaranthus cruentus), containing 13.5% protein and .96% lysine, were evaluated nutritionally in three experiments with chickens. Autoclaved amaranth gave better chick growth than raw amaranth when fed at 30% of the diet. The apparent metabolizable energy of amaranth, as determined with adult male chickens, was 2.86 kcal/g. Amaranth is relatively low in thiamin, and a deficiency of thiamin was noted in chickens fed rations containing 78.7% autoclaved amaranth for 17 days. Lysine in amaranth appeared to be readily available, because the growth of chicks fed amaranth supplemented with gelatin and lysine was similar to that observed with similar levels of total lysine in a lysine-supplemented corn-gelatin diet.

The amino acid composition of brewer's dried grains from a brewery which used rice as the predominant starting material is somewhat higher in arginine than the values given by the National Research Council (NRC) (1977) which are probably based upon barley. When brewer's dried grains were used as the only source of protein for chicks, lysine was the only amino acid which appeared to be limiting.

A foot pad dermatitis has been noted in White turkey poults fed a methionine deficient diet containing soybean meal. It was not related to a deficiency of biotin. Supplementing this diet with cystine aggravates the condition while methionine prevents it. Metabolic precursors of methionine such as homocystine and betaine or methionine hydroxyanalogue appear to be only partially as effective as dl -methionine. This indicates that dietary methionine is more effective in preventing the foot pad dermatitis than that which becomes available after biosynthesis. Bronze poults did not exhibit the syndrome except when cystine was added to the diet.

Larval weight of Tribolium castaneum was used to evaluate six varieties of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). Beans incorporated into test diets were raw, autoclaved, or extracted with either water or 80% methanol. All treatments improved the nutritional quality of beans when compared to raw beans. The bean extracts were growth depressing. In another study heating of the freeze-dried water extract of black beans improved its nutritive value but not of the methanol extract. Tribolium castaneum larvae may be used to evaluate the nutritional quality of Phaseolus vulgaris and different bean treatments.

Turkey hens which had completed a breeding season and contained DDT in their fat were divided into 2 groups of 20 hens each. One group was fed a high wheat control diet throughout a 6 week period while another group was fed a low energy diet for 3 weeks and then the control diet for 3 weeks. Biopsy samples of adipose tissue taken initially and at 3 weeks and carcass adipose tissue samples at 6 weeks were analyzed for DDT and DDE. Total DDT concentration in adipose tissue increased when the hens were fed the low energy diet but decreased again when fed the control diet so that the overall change in DDT concentration over the 6 week period was not different for the two groups. The biopsy technique used in this study was successful in greatly reducing variability and improving precision.

Oral inoculation with Lactobacillus acidophilus and dietary supplementation with antibiotics were compared in broiler chicks fed various levels of biotin to determine their effect on the biotin status of the chicks. Lactobacillus acidophilus inoculation of broiler chickens fed a diet marginally deficient in biotin (56 micrograms/kg) caused a significant decrease (P less than .01) in their liver biotin content from 1596 to 931 ng/g. The decrease biotin status was confirmed by significant increases (P less than .01) in 16:1 and 18:1 plasma fatty acids and significant decreases (P less than .01) in 18:0 and 20:4 omega 6 plasma fatty acids. These alterations in fatty acids were only observed when the samples were taken from chickens in the fed condition. Supplementation with Lactobacillus caused an increased incidence of foot dermatitis and decreased growth of chickens, presumably by competing with the chicken for dietary biotin. No significant changes were noted with antibiotic feeding.

Rice bran either raw or processed in an extrusion cooker at 130 C was fed to meat strain chickens for 25 days after hatch. Either full fat or hexane-extracted rice bran was placed in the diet at the equivalent of 60% full fat bran. Raw full fat bran for one diet was stored at -23 C until fed, whereas rice bran for all other diets was stored at 32 C. Four experiments were conducted at 6-week intervals. Free fatty acid (FFA) content in oil from raw rice bran stored at the elevated temperature reached 81% by the start of the final experiment whereas FFA in stabilized bran oil remained at about 3%. Chickens fed stabilized rice bran made significantly greater gains than chickens fed raw bran diets. Feed efficiency was superior for chickens fed either full fat or extracted stabilized bran compared with full fat bran stored at either 32 or -23 C. Feed conversion for extracted raw bran was intermediate between stabilized bran and full fat raw bran. Raw bran stored at 32 C (with elevated FFA content) tended to produce lower gains than the frozen raw bran. Analysis of the combined data from all four trials indicated that raw bran held at 32 C produced the lowest gains among all of the diets.

IN A study of the need of turkey poults for unidentified growth factors in natural materials it was necessary to establish that the growth activity of the various natural materials was not caused by any of the nutrients which have been found to be essential for other organisms. Orotic acid is active in promoting the growth of Lactobacillus bulgaricus 09 (Wright et al., 1950). It is widely distributed in natural materials and whey is a particularly rich source. Combs et al. (1954) observed more rapid growth in chicks when orotic acid was added to a practical type diet, containing fish meal. The response was independent of the addition of dried whey or methionine. Fritz et al. (1954) reported approximately 5% increased weight in chicks fed orotic acid which was equal to responses obtained with dried skim milk, dried whey or hydrolyzed whey. Dam et al. (1957) found no response to . . .

ANTAGONISTIC effect of high levels of dietary zinc on uptake of copper has been established for rats (Smith and Larson, 1946; Van Reen, 1953; Grant-Frost and Underwood, 1958; McCall and Davis, 1961; Van Campen and Scaife, 1967), chickens (Hill and Matrone, 1962), and pigs (Ritchie et al., 1963; Suttle and Mills, 1966a,b). High levels of zinc also interfere with storage of iron for rats (Cox and Harris, 1960; Magee and Matrone, 1960; Kinnamon, 1966; Settlemire and Matrone, 1967), and pigs (Cox and Hale, 1962). No definite information about the antagonism between zinc, copper and iron is available for turkey poults. A level of 30.8 mmoles ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or about 2 gm. zinc per kg. of a practical type turkey starter diet caused no deleterious effects on the growth of poults. A level of 0.9 gm. copper per kg. diet caused a depression in growth of poults and this was . . .

IN INVESTIGATIONS of the unidentified growth factors present in dried whey, the growth response varied with different lots of soybean oil meal which were used as a source of protein. This led Hill (1948) to conclude that soybean oil meals were themselves sources of growth factors and this was further supported by the studies of Hill and Briggs (1950), and Savage et al. (1950). Similar results have been obtained at this Experiment Station and have led the present workers to attempt the concentration of the growth factor(s) for turkey poults from soybean oil meal. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES The basal diets (Table 1) contained about 27% protein and the other nutrients established to be needed for the turkey poults. Drackett C-l (an isolated soybean protein) supplied all the protein in basal diet D and one-half of the protein in diet DSB. The other half came from soybean oil meal (methanol extracted) which …

ALFALFA meal has been shown to inhibit the growth of chicks when fed at 5 to 20 percent of the ration (Cooney et al., 1948; Lepkovsky et al., 1949; and Heywang, 1950). Peterson (1950) reported that the growth inhibitor resembles a saponin in properties, and may be counteracted by simultaneously feeding cholesterol. Heywang and Bird (1954) were able to depress the growth of chicks by feeding alfalfa saponins. German and Couch (1950) tested two samples of alfalfa leaf meal and found one to be highly inhibitory for chicks and poults while the other did not depress growth when fed at 10 percent of the ration. Wilgus and Madsen (1954) tested several samples of alfalfa meal and found great variation in chick growth inhibitory activity. There has been no work to indicate whether alfalfa meal has any adverse effect on hatchability in poultry, or upon performance of the offspring when fed . . .

FULLER et al. (1967) were able to reduce the growth depressing effects for chickens of 1% dietary tannic acid by supplementing the diet with methionine, choline (or betaine) or arginine (or ornithine), and completely overcome the adverse effect of 0.5% dietary tannic acid with these supplements. This combination of methyl donors and arginine was found to be only partially effective against 1% dietary tannic acid but more effective against digallic acid by Rayudu et al. (1970). Dollahite and Camp (1962) found calcium hydroxide to alleviate tannic acid toxicity in rabbits. Also, tannic acid can be complexed and inactivated from its solution in in vitro conditions by polymers such as polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) (Boudet, 1965), and polyoxyethylene sorbitan monoleate (Tween 80) (Zanobini et al., 1967). It was desired to test these polymers, Ca(OH)2, CaCO3 and Na2 CO3 in case these could overcome tannic acid toxicity for chickens. As tannic acid was…

INTRODUCTION SINCE turkey fat is the least stable component of the carcass in frozen storage, considerable emphasis has been placed in this Laboratory on studies of the composition of turkey fat and especially the variation in composition and stability which may be expected under commercial conditions. As a prerequisite to experiments on processing and storage variables, studies have included cooperative investigations of the influence of type and amount of dietary fat, which have long been known to exert an important effect on carcass fat quality in many livestock. In agreement with the extensive studies made on hogs (Ellis and Isbell, 1926), earlier work by Cruickshank (1934) on chickens and a recent report from this Laboratory on turkeys (Klose, Mecchi, Hanson and Lineweaver, 1951) have established the fact that the fatty acid composition of poultry depot fats is very sensitive to changes in dietary fat. Moreover such changes in composition were . . .

A DEPRESSION in the growth of chickens by the inclusion of guar meal in their diets has been reported by Borcher and Ackerson (1950), Sathe and Bose (1962), Vogt and Penner (1963), Vohra and Kratzer (1964a) and Bakshi et al. (1964). Vohra and Kratzer (1964a) showed an improvement in the growth of chickens if the raw guar meal was autoclaved in layers of about 2.5 cm. thickness for 30 minutes at 2 atmospheric pressure and used as the source of protein along with fish meal. Improvement of guar meal by heat has also been confirmed by Bakshi et al. (1964). Our earlier work has indicated that growth of chickens was of the same order as on diets containing soybean meal if the autoclaved or the commercially available toasted guar meal was reacted with enzymes. The enzymes destroyed the growth-depressing effects of guar gum, a polysaccharide obtained from guar beans (Vohra…

SummaryFormation constants at a pH of 7.4 and μ = 0.16 have been determined by the ion-exchange method for zinc and a number of complexing agents.

A DEFICIENCY of lysine causes a depigmentation of the hair coats of rats (Vohra and Kratzer, 1956); and feathers of chickens (Patrick, 1953; Klain et al., 1957a) and turkey poults (Fritz et al., 1946; Grau et al., 1946). A number of vitamins have been related to the development of normal pigmentation in animals. Diets which are deficient in pantothenic acid caused graying in rats, mice (Morgan and Simms, 1940; Gyorgy and Poling, 1940a, b; Unna and Sampson, 1940; Singer and Davis, 1950), and chickens (Groody and Groody, 1942). Biotin deficiency also caused failure of pigmentation of hair of rats and mice (Gyorgy and Poling, 1940; Quevedo, 1956). Folic acid prevented graying of rats on diets containing sulfaguanidine (Martin, 1942) and succinylsulfathiazole (Wright and Welch, 1943). A deficiency of folic acid appeared to cause depigmentation in the feathers of chickens (Briggs and Lillie, 1946; Frost et al., 1946; Klain et al., . . .

THE essential nature of zinc (O’Dell and Savage, 1957; Supplee et al., 1958), copper (Elvehjem and Hart, 1929; Savage et al., 1962; Al-Ubaidi and Sullivan, 1963), and manganese (Wilgus et al., 1937; Ringrose et al., 1939; Evans et al., 1942) for poultry has been established. The availability of minerals present in the diet is improved by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) (Kratzer et al., 1959; Davis et al., 1962). Whether EDTA will make excesses of minerals more available and increase their toxicity is not known. Information regarding the tolerance and toxicities of these minerals and the effect of EDTA on them is needed to further understand chelate function in the animal. Zinc had no deleterious effects on chickens up to 1,000 p.p.m. but was growth depressing at 1,500 p.p.m. and caused severe mortality at 3,000 p.p.m. (Roberson and Schaible, 1960; Tahara et al., 1962). A depression in growth of chicks at 2,000 . . .

THE pyridoxine requirements of chicks have been reported to be from 275 to 400 micrograms per 100 grams of diet (Hogan et al., 1941; Briggs et al., 1942). No data are available on the pyridoxine requirements of turkey poults. Since the turkey’s requirements are slightly but significantly higher for pantothenic acid (Lepkovsky et al., 1945) and riboflavin (Bird et al., 1946) than those of the chick, it seemed worth while to establish their comparative requirements for pyridoxine. EXPERIMENTAL At hatching, turkey poults and baby chicks were given stock mashes for one week, after which they were given the pyridoxine-deficient diet used in our previous pyridoxine studies (Bird et al., 1943). Three series of experiments were run. In the first series, the only difference between the chick and poult diets consisted in doubling the vitamin A and D oil in the poult diet. The second and third series differed from the . . .

FOR the biosynthesis of choline, Jukes (1947) and Artom (1952) proposed a scheme for the stepwise addition of methyl groups from methionine via transmethylation to aminoethanol. However, Stekol et al. (1955) demonstrated that dimethylaminoethanol was the only direct acceptor of the methyl group of methionine for choline biosynthesis in rats, the other 2 methyl groups were produced by de novo synthesis involving folic acid. Stekol (1958) postulated the following stepwise sequence for choline biosynthesis: The de novo synthesis of methyl groups was supported by studies of Nyc (1956) in a mutant strain of Neurospora crassa where formate-C14 was incorporated far in excess than C14H3 of methionine into methylaminoethanol. Young el al. (1955) found that choline requirement of chickens was decreased by dietary folic acid. Also, choline could be replaced by an equimolar quantity of monomethylaminoethanol plus betaine, either in presence or absence of folic acid. Vitamin B12 spared choline requirements …