Riboflavin Requirement of Turkey Poults Fed a Corn-Soybean Meal Diet from 1 to 21 Days of Age

Abstract

Two battery experiments involving a total of 816 Nicholas Large White turkey poults were conducted to determine the riboflavin requirement from 1 to 21 days of age. In Experiment 1,480 poults were assigned to six dietary treatments: 0, .6, 1.1, 1.7, 3.1, and 4.4 mg supplemental riboflavin/kg basal diet. The corn-soybean meal basal diet was formulated to contain 28.5% crude protein. The vitamin premix was formulated to be devoid of riboflavin. The analyzed riboflavin content of the basal diet was 2.7 mg/kg feed. Ten replicates of eight birds per pen (four female and four male poults) were used per diet. In Experiment 2, 336 poults were assigned the same dietary treatments but with only seven replications. Using the broken line technique, it was determined that .79 ± .03 mg supplemental riboflavin/kg diet or 3.5 mg riboflavin/kg diet was needed to maximize growth. However, in order to prevent leg paralysis, slightly more riboflavin appeared to be needed.