Effect of Diet and Manganese Level on Growth, Perosis and 54Mn Uptake in Chicks

Abstract

Broiler-type chicks were used to study the effect of graded levels of manganese in a purified diet and in two practical-type diets (one without and one with 14.5% feather meal) on growth, incidence of perosis, the in vivo uptake of 54Mn by certain tissues and in vitro uptake of 54Mn by erythrocytes. Generally, growth was unaffected by the manganese levels except that chicks fed the purified diet containing no added manganese achieved very poor growth. The incidence of perosis was decreased by manganese additions but was not eliminated. An inverse relationship was observed between dietary manganese and the percentage of 54Mn taken up by liver, kidney, spleen and muscle. The first added increment of manganese in the diet had the greatest effect in reducing the uptake of 54Mn by intramuscular dose. The inconsistent 54Mn tibia uptake was probably affected by bone size. Erythrocytes incubated with 54Mn took up some of the isotope, but the amount failed to reflect the manganese content of the diet. No appreciable amount of manganese appeared to be tied up by the feather meal diets as evidenced by tissue and excretion data.