Menhaden Fish Meal, Dried Fish Solubles, Methionine and Zinc Bacitracin in Diets of Young Turkeys

Three 2 × 2 × 3 × 2 factorially designed experiments were conducted with 0 and 4% menhaden fish meal, 0 and 1% dried fish solubles, 0, 0.2 and 0.4% added dl-methionine or methionine hydroxy analogue, and 0 and 55 p.p.m. bacitracin from zinc bacitracin as dietary variables. Each of the 24 diets was fed to four pens of male and four pens of female Large White turkeys from one day to seven weeks of age. Each pen contained 9 or 10 birds, and a total of 1,824 turkeys were used. The unsupplemented 30% protein corn-soybean meal practical-type diet contained 0.46% methionine and 0.45% cystine by calculation. Body weights at seven weeks of age were increased 5.9% from 4% menhaden fish meal, 2.5% from 1% spray dried fish solubles, 10.1 and 12.0% from 0.2 and 0.4% added methionine, respectively, and 6.3% from 55 p.p.m. bacitracin. Body weights increased 10.8, 4.0and 3.5% from added fish meal, and 3.6, 4.5 and −0.3% from added fish solubles in diets containing 0, 0.2 and 0.4% added methionine, respectively. Increases in body weight from 1% fish solubles were 4.2 and 0.9% in diets containing 0 and 4% fish meal, and 4.9 and 0.3% in diets containing 0 and 55 p.p.m. bacitracin, respectively. A 2.3% increase in seven-week body weights from fish meal in the presence of fish solubles, bacitracin and added methionine supports the theory that an unidentified factor exists in fish meal.