Growth Inhibitory Effect of Certain Polysaccharides for Chickens

Abstract

IT IS well-known that the growth of chickens is inhibited if their diet contains either linseed meal (Kratzer and Williams, 1948; MacGregor and McGinnis, 1948), or ground carobs (Kratzer and Williams, 1951; Bornstein et al., 1963), or guar meal (Borcher and Ackerson, 1950; Vohra and Kratzer, 1964). In each case, the feces of the chickens were extremely sticky and tended to paste up the vent. Linseed meal loses its growth-inhibitory properties if it is given a preliminary water treatment; or if the pyridoxine content of the diet is increased (Kratzer and Williams, 1948; MacGregor and McGinnis, 1948). Similar treatment of ground carobs gave either very slight but significant (Kratzer and Williams, 1951), or no growth improvement (Bornstein et al., 1963) of chicks. Our unpublished studies indicate that guar meal is not improved either by treatment with water or by the addition of pyridoxine.Linseed meal, carob and guar seeds are…