The Long Range Effect of Low Level Methionine Supplementation in Growing Turkey Rations

Abstract

THERE is rather general agreement that low level synthetic methionine supplementation to the diets of poults is beneficial with respect to feed efficiency and body weight in the early stages of growth. Bird, Marsden and Kellogg (1948), using a ration containing only vegetable protein, demonstrated that the addition of 0.05 and 0.2 percent dl-methionine improved turkey growth up to six weeks of age. Atkinson, Reid, Quisenberry and Couch (1953) reported that the addition of supplementary methionine at the 0.05 percent level consistently increased poult growth up to eight weeks on an all-vegetable protein diet. The growth response was shown to be additive to that due to the unidentified factor present in distiller’s dried solubles. An improved feed efficiency, which was obtained with antibiotic-supplemented diets, did not appear to be enhanced by the addition of methionine at the 0.05 percent level.No increase in poult weight to six weeks of age, …