Effects of Erythromycin, Fermacto-500, Herring Fish Meal and Taurine in Diets of Young Turkeys

Abstract

Two experiments involving a total of 864 turkeys divided into 96 pens were conducted to determine the primary and interaction effects of adding erythromycin, Fermacto-500, herring fish meal and taurine to diets of young Medium White turkeys on their body weight, feed consumption and feed efficiency from one day to eight weeks of age. In each experiment, 24 diets in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 factorial arrangement of variables were each fed to 9 males and 9 females.Body weights at eight weeks of age were increased 8.1 percent by the addition of 22 p.p.m. erythromycin thiocyanate, 10.1 percent by the addition of 0.25 percent Fermacto-500, and 8.1 percent by the addition of both factors to the diets without an added antibiotic. Similar interactions in feed consumption and feed efficiency data were observed. Bacteriological tests showed that erythromycin thiocyanate is not present in Fermacto-500 or is not present in sufficient amounts to produce a growth response. These data suggest that a potent metabolite which stimulates growth such as a vitamin or another antibiotic similar to erythromycin is present in the Fermacto-500.The addition of 5 percent herring fish meal to the diets increased body weight by 5.9 percent, feed consumption by 3.4 percent and feed efficiency by 2.5 percent. Taurine, which was added at 25 and 250 p.p.m. to the diets, failed to affect significantly any of these measurements.