Influence of Beans, Peas and Lentils as Dietary Ingredients on the Growth Response of Chicks to Antibiotic and Methionine Supplementation of the Diet ,

Results of two experiments conducted with chicks showed that growth and other parameters were markedly depressed by feeding a basal diet containing approximately 53% of steam autoclaved dry beans and that this depression was counteracted to a considerable degree by addition of antibiotic supplements to the diet. The use of a similar level of either dry field peas or lentils in the chick diet also increased the magnitude of growth response to an antibiotic supplement. These improvements in growth with antibiotic supplements added to diets containing beans, peas or lentils were in marked contrast to an insignificant response with an antibiotic addition to a more conventional type of control diet. The addition of an antibiotic supplement to the diet containing beans significantly improved feed efficiency and total protein efficiency, but only methionine supplementation to the diets containing peas or lentils significantly improved these values. The addition of penicillin plus methionine did not further improve feed efficiency or total protein efficiency.