A laboratory evaluation of the effect of the coccidiostat, trithiadol ® on the growth of chickens

Abstract

In feeding trials with chicks through 9 weeks, replicated groups fed 0.1% dietary Trithiadol ®-supplemented feed gained weight as well as did the control groups, while the weight gains of those fed 0.0125% dietary nicarbazin-supplemented feed were affected adversely. The chicks in all the groups exhibited no adverse effects by any of the other criteria used, including feed conversions and physical characteristics of the birds through dressing out. In a second feeding trial in which the anticoccidial agents were fed at the commercially recommended level and at three to six times this level, there was no apparent effect on the weight gains in the use level-fed replicated groups. The birds fed the threefold nicarbazin-supplemented feed weighed significantly less than those of the control group ( P = <0.001). The chicks fed the sixfold level of Trithiadol-supplemented feed also weighed less than the birds of the control group ( P = 0.02). None of the chicks exhibited any other adverse effect. The results from these laboratory feeding trials support the view that Trithiadol may be expected to exhibit a wide margin of safety under conditions of use.