Studies in Turkey Nutrition Using a Purified Diet

THE quantitative requirements of the poult for riboflavin, choline, pantothenic acid, niacin, pyridoxine, folic acid, vitamins A and D, calcium, phosphorus and manganese have been reported. Nevertheless, much information is still lacking as to the levels of many of the common nutrients necessary for optimum growth in the young turkey. The turkey growth studies conducted in the past using purified diets have, on the whole, given subnormal growth responses indicating either that certain nutrients were not being supplied in adequate amounts or that certain unknown factors were missing from these diets. In view of this, studies were undertaken in this laboratory to obtain further information regarding the optimum nutrition of turkey poults. EXPERIMENTAL The studies reported in this paper were conducted with White Holland poults of mixed sex, 15 poults per lot. The poults were housed in electrically heated pens having raised wire floors. A purified diet was devised, taking . . .