Supplementation with Vitamin B12 and Amino Acids of Chick Diets Containing Soybean or Cottonseed Meal

NUTRITIONISTS have made numerous attempts to devise adequate poultry rations by the use of vegetable products as the sole source of protein. Many studies have been conducted with diets based chiefly on corn and soybean oil meal. The work of Bird and Mattingly (1945), Clandinin et al. (1946), Gerry et al. (1948), and Milligan et al. (1951) has demonstrated that such diets are deficient in methionine. In the report of Briggs et al. (1950), evidence of growth stimulation in normal chicks by vitamin B12 concentrates and crystalline vitamin B12 was presented. The basal diet consisted primarily of corn and soybean oil meal. Their paper included a review of the literature concerning the effect of vitamin B12 supplements in chick diets. Fewer studies have been conducted with cottonseed meal as a protein supplement in all-vegetable rations. Grau (1946) reported that when cottonseed meal was the sole source of protein, such diets . . .