The Effect of Calorie Source in a Chick Diet on Growth, Feed Utilization, and Body Composition

THE addition of fat to broiler diets has resulted in various observations from different laboratories. Siedler and Schweigert (1953), Runnels (1955), Sunde (1954) and Biely and March (1954) have reported that fat favorably influences feed conversion and growth of chicks. Rosenberg et al. (1955) gave an account of the manner in which fat increased the amino acid requirement of the chick, and Combs (1955) reported on the part fat plays in body composition of chicks and tendency of chicks to “overeat.” The question naturally arises as to whether these beneficial effects are due entirely to the energy content of fat or to some other intrinsic value of fat per se. The experiments presented in this paper were designed to shed light on this question. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Two four-week experiments are reported in which three and six replicate groups of 16 battery reared New Hampshire male chicks were used in each …