Effects of dietary protein concentration and specific amino acids on body weight, body composition and feather growth in young turkeys

1. Two randomised block factorial experiments were conducted to investigate the relationships between the effects of dietary crude protein and specific amino acid concentrations on the relative growth of the body and feathers of young turkeys. 2. Decreasing dietary crude protein concentration from 300 to 180 g/kg in experiment 1 reduced the body and breast muscle weights of a large male line of turkeys proportionally by 0.44 and 0.52 compared with 0.19 and 0.24 in a small traditional line. 3. Decreasing dietary crude protein concentration was associated with a maximum reduction in feather weight of 0.18 and 0.24 respectively in male line and traditional turkeys. The length of the feathers in the cranial region of the breast decreased from 26 to 19mm in the traditional line compared with an increase from 14 to 25 mm in male line turkeys. 4. Decreasing dietary crude protein concentration was associated with an increase in the fat content of the feather-free carcase. Male line turkeys had a higher carcase fat and lower feather dry matter content than the traditional turkeys. 5. It was concluded that dietary crude protein was preferentially partitioned to feather rather than muscle growth in the male line in contrast to a traditional line of turkeys in which the growth of feathers and muscle were affected equally. 6. In experiment 2, the amino acids arginine, valine, methionine and tyrosine were added separately to a common basal ration (180g CP/kg) to raise their concentration to that of the control ration (260 g CP/kg). Each ration was fed ad libitum to male line turkeys from 2 to 6 weeks of age. 7. Amino acid supplementation increased body and breast muscle weights. 8. Compared with the basal ration, tyrosine was associated with a reduction in feather weight whereas valine had no effect. Supplementation with arginine and methionine resulted in increased feather weights that were similar to that of the controls. 9. It was concluded that arginine and methionine were used preferentially and are essential for feather growth. Excess amino acids that are not required for feather growth such as tyrosine and valine were used for increased body growth and resulted in relatively poor feather cover. 10. The results suggest that feather growth was maintained as much as possible at the expense of body growth when the amino acid concentration of the ration was less than that required to maximise body and muscle weight gain in large male line turkeys.

Effects of ambient temperature and restricted feeding on the growth of feathers in growing turkeys

1. Male turkeys were reared to 6 weeks of age at 15 degrees C and 26 degrees C and fed ad libitum or restricted to 0.5 of the body weight of birds fed ad libitum. Basal metabolic rate was determined by indirect calorimetry at an ambient temperature of 20 degrees C. 2. Turkeys at 15 degrees C were lighter than those kept at 26 degrees C. Feather lengths and weight were similar in both groups. Fasting heat production corrected for both metabolic body size and activity was greater in turkeys reared at 15 degrees C than those at 26 degrees C. 3. Cranial breast feathers were significantly longer in restricted birds than in those fed ad libitum in contrast to a proportional decrease in the lengths of other feathers of 0.1 to 0.3. Feather weight as a proportion of body weight was 0.072 in restricted turkeys compared with 0.046 in birds fed ad libitum. There was no difference in basal metabolic rate between ad libitum and restricted turkeys. 4. It was concluded that feather growth was maintained in preference to body and muscle growth and that rearing birds at 15 degrees C did not improve breast feather cover. It is suggested that the growth of breast feathers in turkeys fed ad libitum is impaired.

Feeding-induced tonic pain suppression in the chicken: reversal by naloxone

Endogenous analgesia induced by changes in motivation has been identified in the chicken in previous studies but either the motivational changes were difficult to interpret or the motivation was unpredictable. Experimental sodium urate (SU) arthritis of the ankle joint resulted in pain-coping behaviour (one-legged standing or sitting) for a 2-h period in non-food-deprived birds without access to food. Complete analgesia or marked hypoalgesia was observed in birds which had been food deprived overnight and given access to food immediately after SU injection. This analgesia seen during feeding behaviour in the food-deprived bird could be completely reversed by intravenous injection of naloxone. These results demonstrate that feeding motivation can totally suppress, in some animals, the severe tonic pain of SU arthritis and that this analgesia may be opioid mediated.