Effect of Penicillin on the Carcass Composition of the Chicken

PUBLISHED information on the effect of feeding antibiotics on carcass composition of poultry is not extensive. Tarver (1954) found no change in the dressing loss or fleshing of chickens caused by feeding penicillin. On the other hand, for the poult, Dymsza et al. (1953) reported a significant lowering of the moisture content when oxytetracycline was fed but no change in protein or ether extract, and Saxena et al. (1953) found that an increase in subcutaneous fat resulted from feeding penicillin. Described, herein, are two experiments in which the effect of feeding penicillin on the moisture, crude protein, fat and ash content of the chicken was investigated. Basal diets used in the two experiments are given in Table 1. In both experiments, 4 pens of chicks, each containing 12 birds, were fed each diet for 4 weeks. In experiment 1, five birds were chosen at random from each pen for …