Evaluation of Peat as a Dietary Component for Turkeys

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to determine the nutritional and safety characteristics of peat for Nicholas Large White turkeys using a corn-soy basal diet containing six levels of peat. Peat was added at the expense of the entire diet, i.e., 20% peat means 80% control diet and 20% peat.Day-old turkey poults were fed 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 40% peat for 3 weeks. Peat significantly (P<.05) reduced growth at 10, 20, and 40% but not at 2.5 and 5%. The same levels of peat were fed to older turkeys during 8 to 12 or 16 to 20 weeks of age to study growth and recovery patterns until 24 weeks of age. Dietary treatments significantly (P<.05) reduced growth at 20 and 40%, suggesting that older birds could accommodate more dietary peat before showing reduced growth. Mortality was negligible, and necropsy examination of the major internal organs (heart, liver, crop, gizzard, kidney, spleen, and air sac) indicated no harmful effect of peat.Compensatory growth and better feed efficiencies were observed when birds fed higher peat levels during 8 to 12 weeks were returned to the control diet. Body weights for turkeys fed 2.5, 5, 10, and 20% peat were similar to control at 20 weeks but higher by 24 weeks of age.