Nitrogen Retention and Nitrogenous Urine Components of Growing Cockerels as Influenced by Diethylstilbestrol, Methyl Testosterone and Porcine Growth Hormone

THE mechanism by which a rapidly growing animal retains nitrogen and accumulates body protein, and the role of the endocrine system in this regard has intrigued investigators for many years. An indirect method of studying protein metabolism is to study changes induced in the excretory pattern of the end products of protein metabolism, namely, nitrogenous waste products. Attempts to investigate, in detail, the metabolism of chickens are met with the primary difficulty of separately collecting feces and urine for subsequent analysis. Metabolism studies with chickens have therefore been hampered greatly and little research has been done beyond collecting data on gross nitrogen retention. Consequently, little data on nitrogenous urine components of growing chickens under what might be considered normal conditions or under the influence of various treatments (dietary, hormonal or other) are available. Among the early workers who collected data on nitrogenous components in the urine of the chicken were…