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A Critical Need of Phosphorus for the Young Pheasant
A Critical Need of Phosphorus for the Young Pheasant M. L. S U N D E AND H. R.
BIRD
Department of Poultry Husbandry, University of Wisconsin, Madison (Received for publication September 19, 1955)
T
EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
Chinese Ring-neck pheasants were obtained from the Wisconsin Conservation Department Game Farm for these experiments. The pheasant chicks were placed in specially modified electric chick batteries when they were one day old. They were not sexed at any time. Twenty chicks were placed on each experimental diet. In experiment 1 all experimental diets were run in duplicate. The basal diet is shown in Table 1. This diet was calculated to Published with the approval of the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture, Madison, Wisconsin. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin State Conservation Department, Madison.
contain .56 percent phosphorus but four chemical analyses* of this diet showed an average of .66 percent (range .62-.69). The phosphorus was determined using the A.0.A.C (1945) method as outlined in paragraph 2.12. The ashing was performed as outlined in paragraph 2.8c. These analyses were made on four different mixes of the basal diet. Other analyses were conducted on the basal plus .1 percent, .3 percent, and .8 percent, and excellent TABLE 1.—Basal diet used for phosphorus
experiments with pheasants
gms./kg. Ground yellow corn Wheat middlings Wheat bran Ground oats Soybean oil meal (solvent) Dehydrated alfalfa meal (20% protein) Condensed fish solubles Calcium carbonate Granite grit Iodized salt Feeding oil (300D-1.500A) Manganese sulfate Riboflavin Choline chloride, 70% DL Methionine Vitamin B12 and antibiotic feed supplement* Niacin Alpha tocopherol acetate
Phosphorus content Calcium content
160 50 50 50 560 50 30 32.5 10 5 5 .33 .004 1.4 0.5 1.0 .080 .010
Calculated
Chemical analyses
. 56 1.51
.66 (Range .62-.69) 1.60
* Contains 3 mgs. vitamin B12 and 2.0 gms. procaine penicillin per pound.
* Conducted by Mr. W. B. Griem, Director of the Feed and Fertilizer Inspection Laboratory, State Department of Agriculture, Biochemistry Bldg., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
424
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
HE nutritive requirements of pheasants are generally higher than those of chicks and follow more closely the requirements of turkeys. Very little information is available on the phosphorus requirement of the pheasant. Skoglund (1940) reported that Callenbach and Murphy obtained satisfactory growth and normal bone development in Ring-necked pheasant chicks brooded in batteries and fed a ration containing 1.5 percent of calcium and .75 percent of phosphorus. In another experiment Skoglund (1940) reported that when the birds were 8 weeks old the group of pheasants fed .87 percent calcium and .78 percent phosphorus (chemical analyses) weighed the most. Protein content was also varied and this group was fed the highest level of protein (27.34 percent).
P H O S P H O R U S R E Q U I R E M E N T S OF PHEASANTS TABLE 2.—The effect of phos phorus on growth of pheasant chicks to f our weeks (Experiment 1) Additions to basal diet (. 66% phosphorus)
Age, weeks 2 (gms.)
4 (gms.)
None
35.9 37.4
59.4 65.0
105.6 123.0
. 1 % phosphorus
38.5 41.2
70.9 76.9
173.9 178.0
. 2 % phosphorus
42.5 44.5
81.0 83.6
195.8 195.5
. 3 % phosphorus
43.1 45.5
85.0 91.3
211.6 215.6
. 4 % phosphorus
42.4 46.6
86.0 93.1
206.0 221.4
. 5 % phosphorus
46.0 46.1
94.3 90.3
230.5 217.5
. 8% phosphorus
48.0 46.3
95.8 93.1
223.5 215.7
agreements with the chemical analyses of the basal diet were obtained. Dicalcium phosphate was used to increase the phosphorus content of the test diets. The calcium content was adjusted by varying the additions of calcium carbonate in such a way as to keep the calcium content in all groups from 1.48 to 1.54. The pheasants were banded with wing bands at one day of age and weighed weekly by groups until they were four weeks old. At four weeks of age they were weighed individually. The
FIG. 1. The effect of a basal diet containing .66 percent phosphorus on pheasant chicks at one week.
birds were examined weekly for leg or hock disorder and were scored accordingly. The feed was weighed back a t the end of the fourth week. The x-ray pictures were taken at the end of the fourth week. Bone ash determinations were made according to the A.O.A.C. (1945) method for vitamin D in poultry feed supplements when the pheasant chicks were four weeks of age. All the birds remaining on experiment on the basal diet were used for analysis. In the other groups the birds were selected a t random (Table 4). Pooled samples were ashed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results of the first experiment are shown in Table 2. When the chicks were one week old a leg weakness appeared in the two groups receiving the basal diet. Figure 1 shows the condition of pheasants in the basal group a t one week. Figure 2 shows the group receiving .1 percent phosphorus in addition to the basal. No cases of leg weakness were observed here until later in the growing period. Even a t one week, weight differences (Table 2) were apparent. These data suggest the possibility of using the pheasant as an experimental animal for determining the availability of phosphorus. The basal diet was high in phytin phosphorus. The only in-
FIG. 2. The effect of adding .1% phosphorus to the basal diet on pheasant chicks at one week.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
1 (gms.)
425
426
M.
L.
SUNDE AND H.
TABLE 3.—The effect of phosphorus on growth of pheasant chicks to four weeks (Experiment 2) Additions to basal diet (.66% phosphorus) phosphorus phosphorus phosphorus phosphorus phosphorus
4 2 1 3 (gms.) (gms.) (gms.) (gms.) 31.7 31.0 32.6 27.4 30.6
58.2 63.0 67.2 60.2 64.2
96.5 114.8 124.4 118.1 123.1
135.6 163.8 178.9 174.9 174.3
gredient in the basal diet which would supply largely inorganic phosphorus was the fish solubles, and this was added at a rather low level. The data suggest also that the pheasant chick cannot utilize phytin phosphorus to any great extent. A diet that would supply .66 percent phosphorus would be adequate for the chick. In fact, the National Research Council (Bird et al., 1954) recommends .6 percent phosphorus but at least 0.45 percent of the total feed of starting chickens should be inorganic phosphorus. The requirement for turkey poults is given (Bird et al., 1954) as 1 percent of the diet. Wilcox et al. (1953) have reviewed the experimental work on phosphorus with turkeys. The disparity between the optimum growth response and the recommendations of the authors cited by Wilcox et al. (1953) is interesting. Apparently the phosphorus requirement of the pheasant chick is high. About .3 percent phosphorus was needed in addition to that in the basal diet to get an optimum response. Additions of more than .3 percent phosphorus did not result in any appreciable increase in weight gains to two or four weeks. Seventy and 75 percent mortality occurred in the basal groups during the four week period. The results of the second experiment are shown in Table 3. This experiment was conducted with a smaller strain of pheasants maintained at the State Game Farm.
BIRD
Because of limited available space the group fed the basal diet and the group fed the basal diet plus .8 percent phosphorus was omitted from the experimental design. Again .3 percent of added phosphorus was required for optimum growth at four weeks. The results at two weeks suggested that .2 percent added phosphorus might be enough. However, by the third week the results were similar to the four week data. The results of bone ash determinations are shown in Table 4. The bone ash of a four week old pheasant is rather high. The bone ash values of four week old turkeys in the experiments of Wilcox et al. (1953) ranged from 25 to 47 percent on the purified diets and included a value of 43 percent on the practical diet. Four week old chicks usually have a bone ash of about 45 percent. This further indicates the critical need of bone building material for the young pheasant. The bone ash figures agree with the growth data very well. TABLE 4.—The effect of phosphorus on hone ash at four weeks of pheasant chicks (Experiment 1) Percent bone ash
Mean of two groups
Basal diet (. 66% phosphorus) 38.59 (5) 37.24(6)
37.92
Basal d i e t + . l % phosphorus
48.24(4) 43.17(6)
45.71
Basal d i e t + . 2 % phosphorus „ .
49.36(4) 49.05(4)
49.20
Basal diet+ . 3 % phosphorus
53.40 (4) 51.60(4)
52.93
Basal d i e t + . 4 % phosphorus
52.68(3) 50.24(3)
51.74
Basal diet+ . 5 % phosphorus
51.74 (3) 51.78(3)
51.76
Basal diet-)-.8% phosphorus
52.05(3) 51.82(3)
51.94
Number in parenthesis refers to number of birds analyzed.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
.1% . 2% .3% .4% . 5%
Age, weeks
R.
PHOSPHORUS REQUIREMENTS OF PHEASANTS
427
PERCENT BONE ASH
»'
• s*
50'
• '
* / «• 1• 40-
3 0 . 1' .66
1
1
.76
.86
.96
|.06
116
L26
1.36
1.46
PERCENT PHOSPHORUS IN DIET
FIG. 3. Thee ffect of phosphorus levels on bone ash of pheasant chicks.
Again .3 percent added phosphorus was required to obtain optimum bone ash. Figure 3 shows the bone ash of each of the two lots on each phosphorus level. The mean values are given in Table 4. The per-
FIG. 4. Bending of the tarsometatarsus of pheasant chick fed a diet with .66 percent phosphorus.
FIG. 5. Another variation of the bending of the tarsometatarsus of pheasant chicks when a diet containing .66 percent phosphorus is fed.
cent ash plateaus at about .96 percent total phosphorus. Figure 4 shows the leg of a pheasant chick fed on the basal diet. The tarsometatarsus is bent sharply just below the hock joint. Figure 5 shows a slight variation of the abnormality in Figure 4. Unlike some of our classical "typical" symptoms, this appeared in every pheasant fed the basal diet which contained .66 percent phosphorus. Figure 6 shows a normal pheasant fed the basal diet plus .3 percent phosphorus. The possibility that the tarsometatarsus was broken because of the weight of the growing chick was checked by getting x-ray radiographs made.* Figure 7 and Figure 8 shows two pheasant legs from the groups fed the basal diet. The bending of the tarsometatarsus is evident here also. In addition, the tibiotarsus is also bent at * Courtesy Dr. W. E. Sullivan, School of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
35-
AND H. R.
BIRD
FIG. 6. Normal legs of a pheasant fed the basal diet plus .4 percent added phosphorus.
FIGS. 7 and 8. The effect of low phosphorus on the bone formation of pheasant chicks.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
the upper end. This is true for both the birds x-rayed and for all of the other birds in the basal group when the bones were removed for ashing. Dr. Sullivan could detect no fracture of the bone from the x-ray plate. Figure 9 shows a pheasant leg from the group fed the .1 percent added phosphorus. Again some bending is evident both in the tarsometatarsus and the tibiotarsus. P'igure 10 shows the leg from a pheasant fed the basal plus .4 percent
PHOSPHORUS REQUIR:
phosphorus. No bending was observed here. That the pheasant has an extremely high requirement for phosphorus is evident from the growth data, bone ash results, pictures, and radiographs. The basal diet was, of course, rather high in phytin phosphorus. If we make an assumption that 70 percent of the phosphorus in the basal was phytin then we would have only .2 percent inorganic phosphorus in the basal diet. This means that in these experiments, in the presence of phytin, optimal performance was achieved when the level
429
FIG. 10. The effect on bone formation of the addition of .4 percent phosphorus to the basal diet of pheasant chicks.
of inorganic phosphorus reached .5 percent. The addition of phosphorus up to 1.46 percent total phosphorus did not result in decreased growth or an increase in the evidence of leg disorder. SUMMARY
Pheasant chicks have been fed a diet containing .66 percent phosphorus (chemical analyses). When this diet was fed, high mortality resulted. The pheasant chicks, after two weeks on this diet, showed a distinct bending of the tarso-
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
FIG. 9. The effect on bone formation of the addition of ,1 percent phosphorus to the basal diet of pheasant chicks.
iNTs OF P H E A S A N T S
430
R. S. GOWE REFERENCES Bird, H. R., H. J. Almquist, W. W. Cravens, F. W. Hill and J. McGinnis, 1954. Nutrient requirements for domestic animals. Number 1. Nutrient requirements for poultry. Agricultural Board, Division of Biology and Agriculture, National Research Council, Washington 25, D. C. Official and Tentative Methods of Analysis of the 6th Edition Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, 1945. Published by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, Washington, D.C. Skoglund, W. C , 1940. An improved ration for starting ring-necked pheasants. Pennsylvania Agr. Expt. Sta. Bulletin 389. Wilcox, R. A., C. W. Carlson, W. Kohlmeyer and G. F. Gastler, 1953. Calcium and phosphorus requirements of poults fed purified diets. Poultry Sci. 32: 1030-1035.
Environment and Poultry Breeding Problems. 2. A COMPARISON OF THE EGG PRODUCTION OF 7 S.C. WHITE LEGHORN STRAINS HOUSED IN LAYING BATTERIES AND FLOOR PENS R. S. GOWE Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada* (Received for publication September 23, 1955)
I
N THE last decade there has been a remarkable increase in the number of laying hens kept in laying cages on the North American continent, particularly in the southern states and the west coast of the United States and Canada. Birds of the White Leghorn breed are very commonly used in these "cage plants." Although there are little or no controlled experimental data in the literature as to whether one breed or strain within a breed is more adaptable than another to laying cage conditions, commercial egg producers on this continent have found that Leghorns and Leghorn crosses on the average do better than the heavier breeds of fowl * Poultry Division, Experimental Farms Service, Ottawa.
and S.C. White Leghorns are now widely used in laying cage plants. There is no published information as to whether strains of S.C. White Leghorns differ in their ability to adapt to cage conditions. An opportunity presented itself in the fall of 1950-1951 to test the response of 7 strains of Leghorns to battery conditions while comparing them with the performance of the same 7 strains in floor pens. PROCEDURE
Hatching eggs were obtained from 7 Canadian R.O.P. breeders of S.C. White Leghorns. Each sample consisted of 360 hatching eggs. All the eggs were set in the same incubator at the same time in trays randomized as to position in the machines.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
metatarsus near the hock joint and of the proximal end of the tibiotarsus. Bone ash values were reduced from a normal of about 52 percent to 38 percent when the basal diet was fed. Additions of .3 percent to .8 percent of phosphorus from dicalcium phosphate resulted in normal growth, normal bone formation and calcification. The pheasant chicks exhibited a distinct leg weakness on the basal diet at one week of age. Differences in weight were also becoming apparent at that time. The pheasant chick would be a good assay animal for studying phosphorus metabolism and availability.
BIRD
Department of Poultry Husbandry, University of Wisconsin, Madison (Received for publication September 19, 1955)
T
EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
Chinese Ring-neck pheasants were obtained from the Wisconsin Conservation Department Game Farm for these experiments. The pheasant chicks were placed in specially modified electric chick batteries when they were one day old. They were not sexed at any time. Twenty chicks were placed on each experimental diet. In experiment 1 all experimental diets were run in duplicate. The basal diet is shown in Table 1. This diet was calculated to Published with the approval of the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture, Madison, Wisconsin. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin State Conservation Department, Madison.
contain .56 percent phosphorus but four chemical analyses* of this diet showed an average of .66 percent (range .62-.69). The phosphorus was determined using the A.0.A.C (1945) method as outlined in paragraph 2.12. The ashing was performed as outlined in paragraph 2.8c. These analyses were made on four different mixes of the basal diet. Other analyses were conducted on the basal plus .1 percent, .3 percent, and .8 percent, and excellent TABLE 1.—Basal diet used for phosphorus
experiments with pheasants
gms./kg. Ground yellow corn Wheat middlings Wheat bran Ground oats Soybean oil meal (solvent) Dehydrated alfalfa meal (20% protein) Condensed fish solubles Calcium carbonate Granite grit Iodized salt Feeding oil (300D-1.500A) Manganese sulfate Riboflavin Choline chloride, 70% DL Methionine Vitamin B12 and antibiotic feed supplement* Niacin Alpha tocopherol acetate
Phosphorus content Calcium content
160 50 50 50 560 50 30 32.5 10 5 5 .33 .004 1.4 0.5 1.0 .080 .010
Calculated
Chemical analyses
. 56 1.51
.66 (Range .62-.69) 1.60
* Contains 3 mgs. vitamin B12 and 2.0 gms. procaine penicillin per pound.
* Conducted by Mr. W. B. Griem, Director of the Feed and Fertilizer Inspection Laboratory, State Department of Agriculture, Biochemistry Bldg., University of Wisconsin, Madison.
424
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
HE nutritive requirements of pheasants are generally higher than those of chicks and follow more closely the requirements of turkeys. Very little information is available on the phosphorus requirement of the pheasant. Skoglund (1940) reported that Callenbach and Murphy obtained satisfactory growth and normal bone development in Ring-necked pheasant chicks brooded in batteries and fed a ration containing 1.5 percent of calcium and .75 percent of phosphorus. In another experiment Skoglund (1940) reported that when the birds were 8 weeks old the group of pheasants fed .87 percent calcium and .78 percent phosphorus (chemical analyses) weighed the most. Protein content was also varied and this group was fed the highest level of protein (27.34 percent).
P H O S P H O R U S R E Q U I R E M E N T S OF PHEASANTS TABLE 2.—The effect of phos phorus on growth of pheasant chicks to f our weeks (Experiment 1) Additions to basal diet (. 66% phosphorus)
Age, weeks 2 (gms.)
4 (gms.)
None
35.9 37.4
59.4 65.0
105.6 123.0
. 1 % phosphorus
38.5 41.2
70.9 76.9
173.9 178.0
. 2 % phosphorus
42.5 44.5
81.0 83.6
195.8 195.5
. 3 % phosphorus
43.1 45.5
85.0 91.3
211.6 215.6
. 4 % phosphorus
42.4 46.6
86.0 93.1
206.0 221.4
. 5 % phosphorus
46.0 46.1
94.3 90.3
230.5 217.5
. 8% phosphorus
48.0 46.3
95.8 93.1
223.5 215.7
agreements with the chemical analyses of the basal diet were obtained. Dicalcium phosphate was used to increase the phosphorus content of the test diets. The calcium content was adjusted by varying the additions of calcium carbonate in such a way as to keep the calcium content in all groups from 1.48 to 1.54. The pheasants were banded with wing bands at one day of age and weighed weekly by groups until they were four weeks old. At four weeks of age they were weighed individually. The
FIG. 1. The effect of a basal diet containing .66 percent phosphorus on pheasant chicks at one week.
birds were examined weekly for leg or hock disorder and were scored accordingly. The feed was weighed back a t the end of the fourth week. The x-ray pictures were taken at the end of the fourth week. Bone ash determinations were made according to the A.O.A.C. (1945) method for vitamin D in poultry feed supplements when the pheasant chicks were four weeks of age. All the birds remaining on experiment on the basal diet were used for analysis. In the other groups the birds were selected a t random (Table 4). Pooled samples were ashed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results of the first experiment are shown in Table 2. When the chicks were one week old a leg weakness appeared in the two groups receiving the basal diet. Figure 1 shows the condition of pheasants in the basal group a t one week. Figure 2 shows the group receiving .1 percent phosphorus in addition to the basal. No cases of leg weakness were observed here until later in the growing period. Even a t one week, weight differences (Table 2) were apparent. These data suggest the possibility of using the pheasant as an experimental animal for determining the availability of phosphorus. The basal diet was high in phytin phosphorus. The only in-
FIG. 2. The effect of adding .1% phosphorus to the basal diet on pheasant chicks at one week.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
1 (gms.)
425
426
M.
L.
SUNDE AND H.
TABLE 3.—The effect of phosphorus on growth of pheasant chicks to four weeks (Experiment 2) Additions to basal diet (.66% phosphorus) phosphorus phosphorus phosphorus phosphorus phosphorus
4 2 1 3 (gms.) (gms.) (gms.) (gms.) 31.7 31.0 32.6 27.4 30.6
58.2 63.0 67.2 60.2 64.2
96.5 114.8 124.4 118.1 123.1
135.6 163.8 178.9 174.9 174.3
gredient in the basal diet which would supply largely inorganic phosphorus was the fish solubles, and this was added at a rather low level. The data suggest also that the pheasant chick cannot utilize phytin phosphorus to any great extent. A diet that would supply .66 percent phosphorus would be adequate for the chick. In fact, the National Research Council (Bird et al., 1954) recommends .6 percent phosphorus but at least 0.45 percent of the total feed of starting chickens should be inorganic phosphorus. The requirement for turkey poults is given (Bird et al., 1954) as 1 percent of the diet. Wilcox et al. (1953) have reviewed the experimental work on phosphorus with turkeys. The disparity between the optimum growth response and the recommendations of the authors cited by Wilcox et al. (1953) is interesting. Apparently the phosphorus requirement of the pheasant chick is high. About .3 percent phosphorus was needed in addition to that in the basal diet to get an optimum response. Additions of more than .3 percent phosphorus did not result in any appreciable increase in weight gains to two or four weeks. Seventy and 75 percent mortality occurred in the basal groups during the four week period. The results of the second experiment are shown in Table 3. This experiment was conducted with a smaller strain of pheasants maintained at the State Game Farm.
BIRD
Because of limited available space the group fed the basal diet and the group fed the basal diet plus .8 percent phosphorus was omitted from the experimental design. Again .3 percent of added phosphorus was required for optimum growth at four weeks. The results at two weeks suggested that .2 percent added phosphorus might be enough. However, by the third week the results were similar to the four week data. The results of bone ash determinations are shown in Table 4. The bone ash of a four week old pheasant is rather high. The bone ash values of four week old turkeys in the experiments of Wilcox et al. (1953) ranged from 25 to 47 percent on the purified diets and included a value of 43 percent on the practical diet. Four week old chicks usually have a bone ash of about 45 percent. This further indicates the critical need of bone building material for the young pheasant. The bone ash figures agree with the growth data very well. TABLE 4.—The effect of phosphorus on hone ash at four weeks of pheasant chicks (Experiment 1) Percent bone ash
Mean of two groups
Basal diet (. 66% phosphorus) 38.59 (5) 37.24(6)
37.92
Basal d i e t + . l % phosphorus
48.24(4) 43.17(6)
45.71
Basal d i e t + . 2 % phosphorus „ .
49.36(4) 49.05(4)
49.20
Basal diet+ . 3 % phosphorus
53.40 (4) 51.60(4)
52.93
Basal d i e t + . 4 % phosphorus
52.68(3) 50.24(3)
51.74
Basal diet+ . 5 % phosphorus
51.74 (3) 51.78(3)
51.76
Basal diet-)-.8% phosphorus
52.05(3) 51.82(3)
51.94
Number in parenthesis refers to number of birds analyzed.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
.1% . 2% .3% .4% . 5%
Age, weeks
R.
PHOSPHORUS REQUIREMENTS OF PHEASANTS
427
PERCENT BONE ASH
»'
• s*
50'
• '
* / «• 1• 40-
3 0 . 1' .66
1
1
.76
.86
.96
|.06
116
L26
1.36
1.46
PERCENT PHOSPHORUS IN DIET
FIG. 3. Thee ffect of phosphorus levels on bone ash of pheasant chicks.
Again .3 percent added phosphorus was required to obtain optimum bone ash. Figure 3 shows the bone ash of each of the two lots on each phosphorus level. The mean values are given in Table 4. The per-
FIG. 4. Bending of the tarsometatarsus of pheasant chick fed a diet with .66 percent phosphorus.
FIG. 5. Another variation of the bending of the tarsometatarsus of pheasant chicks when a diet containing .66 percent phosphorus is fed.
cent ash plateaus at about .96 percent total phosphorus. Figure 4 shows the leg of a pheasant chick fed on the basal diet. The tarsometatarsus is bent sharply just below the hock joint. Figure 5 shows a slight variation of the abnormality in Figure 4. Unlike some of our classical "typical" symptoms, this appeared in every pheasant fed the basal diet which contained .66 percent phosphorus. Figure 6 shows a normal pheasant fed the basal diet plus .3 percent phosphorus. The possibility that the tarsometatarsus was broken because of the weight of the growing chick was checked by getting x-ray radiographs made.* Figure 7 and Figure 8 shows two pheasant legs from the groups fed the basal diet. The bending of the tarsometatarsus is evident here also. In addition, the tibiotarsus is also bent at * Courtesy Dr. W. E. Sullivan, School of Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
35-
AND H. R.
BIRD
FIG. 6. Normal legs of a pheasant fed the basal diet plus .4 percent added phosphorus.
FIGS. 7 and 8. The effect of low phosphorus on the bone formation of pheasant chicks.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
the upper end. This is true for both the birds x-rayed and for all of the other birds in the basal group when the bones were removed for ashing. Dr. Sullivan could detect no fracture of the bone from the x-ray plate. Figure 9 shows a pheasant leg from the group fed the .1 percent added phosphorus. Again some bending is evident both in the tarsometatarsus and the tibiotarsus. P'igure 10 shows the leg from a pheasant fed the basal plus .4 percent
PHOSPHORUS REQUIR:
phosphorus. No bending was observed here. That the pheasant has an extremely high requirement for phosphorus is evident from the growth data, bone ash results, pictures, and radiographs. The basal diet was, of course, rather high in phytin phosphorus. If we make an assumption that 70 percent of the phosphorus in the basal was phytin then we would have only .2 percent inorganic phosphorus in the basal diet. This means that in these experiments, in the presence of phytin, optimal performance was achieved when the level
429
FIG. 10. The effect on bone formation of the addition of .4 percent phosphorus to the basal diet of pheasant chicks.
of inorganic phosphorus reached .5 percent. The addition of phosphorus up to 1.46 percent total phosphorus did not result in decreased growth or an increase in the evidence of leg disorder. SUMMARY
Pheasant chicks have been fed a diet containing .66 percent phosphorus (chemical analyses). When this diet was fed, high mortality resulted. The pheasant chicks, after two weeks on this diet, showed a distinct bending of the tarso-
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
FIG. 9. The effect on bone formation of the addition of ,1 percent phosphorus to the basal diet of pheasant chicks.
iNTs OF P H E A S A N T S
430
R. S. GOWE REFERENCES Bird, H. R., H. J. Almquist, W. W. Cravens, F. W. Hill and J. McGinnis, 1954. Nutrient requirements for domestic animals. Number 1. Nutrient requirements for poultry. Agricultural Board, Division of Biology and Agriculture, National Research Council, Washington 25, D. C. Official and Tentative Methods of Analysis of the 6th Edition Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, 1945. Published by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, Washington, D.C. Skoglund, W. C , 1940. An improved ration for starting ring-necked pheasants. Pennsylvania Agr. Expt. Sta. Bulletin 389. Wilcox, R. A., C. W. Carlson, W. Kohlmeyer and G. F. Gastler, 1953. Calcium and phosphorus requirements of poults fed purified diets. Poultry Sci. 32: 1030-1035.
Environment and Poultry Breeding Problems. 2. A COMPARISON OF THE EGG PRODUCTION OF 7 S.C. WHITE LEGHORN STRAINS HOUSED IN LAYING BATTERIES AND FLOOR PENS R. S. GOWE Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada* (Received for publication September 23, 1955)
I
N THE last decade there has been a remarkable increase in the number of laying hens kept in laying cages on the North American continent, particularly in the southern states and the west coast of the United States and Canada. Birds of the White Leghorn breed are very commonly used in these "cage plants." Although there are little or no controlled experimental data in the literature as to whether one breed or strain within a breed is more adaptable than another to laying cage conditions, commercial egg producers on this continent have found that Leghorns and Leghorn crosses on the average do better than the heavier breeds of fowl * Poultry Division, Experimental Farms Service, Ottawa.
and S.C. White Leghorns are now widely used in laying cage plants. There is no published information as to whether strains of S.C. White Leghorns differ in their ability to adapt to cage conditions. An opportunity presented itself in the fall of 1950-1951 to test the response of 7 strains of Leghorns to battery conditions while comparing them with the performance of the same 7 strains in floor pens. PROCEDURE
Hatching eggs were obtained from 7 Canadian R.O.P. breeders of S.C. White Leghorns. Each sample consisted of 360 hatching eggs. All the eggs were set in the same incubator at the same time in trays randomized as to position in the machines.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at Florida International University on May 28, 2015
metatarsus near the hock joint and of the proximal end of the tibiotarsus. Bone ash values were reduced from a normal of about 52 percent to 38 percent when the basal diet was fed. Additions of .3 percent to .8 percent of phosphorus from dicalcium phosphate resulted in normal growth, normal bone formation and calcification. The pheasant chicks exhibited a distinct leg weakness on the basal diet at one week of age. Differences in weight were also becoming apparent at that time. The pheasant chick would be a good assay animal for studying phosphorus metabolism and availability.