Growth performance of starting turkey poults fed diets subjected to an anaerobic pasteurizing conditioning system

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.