HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Harms, R. H. Articles by Bootwalla, A. M. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Harms, R. H. Articles by Bootwalla, A. M.

Do Turkey Starter Diets Need Pantothenic Acid Supplementation?

Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Department of Poultry Science, Mehrhof Bldg., University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611; Phone: (904) 392-1931 Fax: (904) 392-8479

Correspondence: R. H. Harms

Nicholas Large White turkey poults were fed a corn-soybean meal diet supplemented with various levels of pantothenic acid. During the first four weeks poults were fed a corn-soybean meal diet containing 22.6 mg pantothenic acid per kg of diet. At 4 weeks of age, 360 male poults were randomly assigned to 60 pens; they received diets containing 0, .4, .8, 1.6, or 2.4 mg of supplemental pantothenic acid per kg of diet. The pantothenic acid content of the diets from 4 to 8 and 8 to 12 weeks was analyzed and found to contain 8.8 and 8.3, and 4.2 and 7.1 mg/pantothenic acid per kg, respectively. Neither body weight gain, feed consumption nor feed efficiency was improved by adding pantothenic acid. These data indicate that the pantothenic acid requirement of 11 and 9 mg/kg by the National Research Council [1] is higher than that required by turkey poults for 40 to 8, and 8 to 12 weeks, respectively. It is highly unlikely that a deficiency of pantothenic acid in 4 to 12 week old poults fed a corn-soybean meal diet containing 3.71% added fat would occur.

Key Words: Turkey poults • pantothenic acid • nutritional requirement