A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECT OF INCREASING DIETARY CONCENTRATIONS OF WHEAT ERGOT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF LEGHORN AND BROILER CHICKS

Abstract

The effects of increasing concentrations of dietary wheat ergot (0.308% total alkaloids) on the performance of growing male Single Comb White Leghorn and commercial broiler chicks was studied in two experiments. As the concentration of ergot increased from 1 to 8% in the diet, there was a progressive decrease in the performance of both strains of chicks relative to birds given the control diets that contained no ergot. The broiler chicks were slightly more sensitive than the Leghorn chicks to the effects of ergot. In general, however, after 3 and 4 wk of exposure, birds which consumed 1% dietary ergot had an approximately 10% lower relative weight gain than the control birds, whereas those exposed to 8% ergot had an 80% lower relative weight gain. During the first 2 wk of both experiments, there was a progressive decrease in relative weight gain in all dietary ergot concentrations, with the exception of the 1% ergot diet. After 2 wk, feed consumption and weight gain of birds consuming the intermediate concentrations of ergot (2–5%) stabilized or tended to increase slightly relative to the controls. Mortality was low on diets containing up to 3% dietary ergot but above this concentration there was a dramatic and progressive increase in deaths with increasing ergot concentrations. Key words: Ergot, Leghorn, broiler, chick, feed consumption, growth, short-term exposure