Gross Abnormalities in Chicks Fed Amino Acid Deficient Diets

EXPERIMENTS are being conducted at this station to determine by chick tests which amino acids are most limiting in the protein of certain feedstuffs used in commercial poultry rations. In our recent tests, a commercial feedstuff was used to provide 14 percent protein in the semi-purified rations fed. The feedstuff was supplemented with an amino acid mixture that gave an 18 percent protein basic ration with a balanced mixture of the essential amino acids. The amino acid mixture provided a greater fraction of the chick’s requirement for a given amino acid when the feedstuff being studied was relatively more deficient in that amino acid. Each essential amino acid in the basic ration’s amino acid mixture was removed in turn to produce the other rations fed. Chick growth rate was decreased most by removal of the amino acids most deficient in the feedstuff being studied. Abnormal feather development was noted when …