Copper Sulphate and Penicillin as Supplements for Chicks

Barber et al. (1960) have reviewed the literature concerning the influence of copper and antibiotic supplementation of diets for growing pigs. The responses of growing pigs to copper supplementation appear to be similar to those obtained with antibiotics. However, in most experiments there appears to have been some additional response when copper and an antibiotic were added together, suggesting some difference in mode of action of the compounds. Mehring et al. (1960) fed a practical-type corn-soybean oil meal diet containing graded levels of copper oxide to growing chicks in battery brooders and reported the minimum toxic level of copper to be about 500 p.p.m. There was an improvement in the feed efficiency of those lots of chicks that were fed the diets that contained added copper, up to the toxic level. The results suggested to the authors that copper may have exerted an effect similar to that of antibiotics. Hill …