Effect of Penicillin and Forage Juice on Reproduction and Growth of Turkeys

KOHLER and Graham (1951) showed that the press juice of forage crops contains an unidentified chick growth factor. The juice factor gave a response even though the diets used contained enough aureomycin to produce close to maximal effect. Scott et al. (1951) obtained no growth response when grass juice was added to a practical chick diet in the absence of an antibiotic but a definite response occurred in the presence of aureomycin. Scott (1951 a) presented evidence to show that the turkey poult requires an unknown factor present in grass and alfalfa juices. Scott (1951 b) also reported that aureomycin exerted a sparing influence upon the requirement of the turkey for the unidentified factor. This was confirmed by Slinger et al. (1952) using penicillin as the antibiotic. It has also been observed that goslings show a growth response to penicillin in the absence but not in the presence of fresh …