The Effect of Alfalfa Saponin on the Growth, Diet Consumption, and Efficiency of Diet Utilization of Chicks

Abstract

IN THE experiment of Cooney, Butts and Bacon (1948) each addition of 5 percent dehydrated alfalfa meal to the diet above the 5 percent level had an increasingly depressing effect on the growth, diet consumption, and diet utilization of chicks. Lepkovsky, Shaeleff, Peterson and Perry (1950) reported that dehydrated alfalfa meal contains a naturally occurring substance (or substances), probably organic in nature, that depresses the growth of chicks and that the fiber in alfalfa meal is not the offending substance.The experiments of Heywang (1950) showed that both dehydrated and suncured alfalfa meals may contain a factor (or factors) that retards the growth of young chickens and the egg production of layers when they are included in the diet at levels as low as 10 percent. He observed that alfalfa meals may vary considerably in their growth depressing effect, which seems to explain why some investigators have reported that the …