A Study on the Digestion of Cellulose in Poultry

MORRIS, Thompson and Heller (1932) reported that the amount of fiber in a chick ration could be increased to as much as 8 to 9% of the ration without harmful effect on the chick mortality, rate of growth, feed consumption, age of maturity and egg production. Davis and Briggs (1947) described that by the addition of 5 to 15% of cellulose to a purified chick diet, a significant increase in the chick's growth resulted. In 1948 they examined the supplementary levels of a purified chick diet and found that as high as 20% sawdust could be tolerated without ill-effect. Saito et al. (1959) also proved the growth promoting effect of cellulose on a chick. However, it is generally recognized that fibers in feed are only partially utilized by poultry due to the fiber's low digestibility; therefore, the questions arise as to why the addition of cellulose shows a growth promoting …