Further Evidence of the Role of Lysine in the Formation of Normal Bronze Turkey Feathers

FRITZ, et al. (1946) investigated the failure of feather pigmentation in Bronze poults raised in confinement on diets containing a high percentage of certain vegetable protein concentrates. These authors found that this syndrome was prevented by the addition to the diet of either crystalline lysine or protein concentrates high in lysine. The approximate amount of lysine required for normal feather pigmentation and optimum growth of poults was found by these workers to be 1.1 to 1.2 percent of the diet. Frequent reports of the occurrence of the white feathering syndrome in Bronze turkeys in Texas prompted the initiation of the experimental work reported herein. Figure 1 shows Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys, six months of age, from a flock in which the color pattern of all the birds was affected to some extent. EXPERIMENTAL Two diets were prepared for this study. Diet 1, Table 1, was composed of natural feeds but . . .