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An Attempt to Determine the Cause of Curled or Deformed Tongues in Young Beltsville White Turkeys
An Attempt to Determine the Cause of Curled or Deformed Tongues in. Young Beltsville White Turkeys D E N V E R D A Y T O N BRAGG
Department of Poultry Husbandry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia (Received for publication August 12, 1952) INTRODUCTION
Hudson (1939) appears to have been the first to publish an account of this condition in turkeys. Personal correspondence with specialists at agricultural colleges or experiment stations in 28 of the leading turkey-producing states and with 14 of the larger feed companies, and a review of the available literature revealed the existence of this abnormal condition in several turkey-producing areas in the United States, but no evidence was Condensed from a thesis submitted by the author to the faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science Degree.
found of any experimental work to determine its cause, cure, or prevention. Almquist and Grau (1944) report that isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine are essential requirements in the diet of chicks. In subsequent publications, they (Grau and Almquist, 1945) state that the folding back of the tip of the tongue in chicks is caused by a deficiency of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine; whereas, deficiencies of protein or several other amino acids have no effect. They further state that gradual healing occurs about a week after the chicks are placed on an adequate diet. However, Almquist (1951) and Grau (1951), also commented that, generally speaking, it is not possible to demonstrate deficiencies of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine in chick and turkey diets, based upon practical ingredients normally used in these feeds. Scott (1951) found a very high incidence of the curled tongue among a lot of poults used in an experiment testing various high energy ingredients as carbohydrate sources. After calculating the amount of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine in the ration to be 1.3 times the known chick requirement, he concludes that the curled tongue condition was not caused by a deficiency of an amino acid in this case, but was probably due instead to the high amount of red dog flour in the ration which pasted up in the beaks of the poults and caused the tongue to curl back mechanically. He further stated that when the level of red dog flour was reduced or
294
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D
URING recent years a deformity of the tongue in young turkeys (especially among the Small Whites) has caused considerable trouble to certain growers in several of the major turkeyproducing areas in the United States. The deformity most generally observed is the curling or folding back of the distal end of the tongue onto the dorsal surface, this condition being noticed at a rather early age. Although there is seemingly only a small amount of mortality among turkeys because of this trouble, there is often considerable financial loss, especially in turkey broilers, due to retarded growth caused by the birds' inability to eat normally. Many seem to believe that this deformity is caused by an amino acid deficiency in the poults' diet. However, the condition frequently has been found among poults that have been fed apparently adequate rations.
CURLED TONGUE IN TURKEYS
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Three trials were conducted with Beltsville White poults in batteries to determine the incidence of curled tongue among poults on feeds of different particle size, the effect of such feed particle size on growth and development, and to attempt correction of the curled tongue condition through the use of additional amounts of isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine in the diet. In addition to the above trials two trips were made to hatcheries to check on the incidence of the curled tongue deformity among day old poults. Trial /.—Sixty day-old Beltsville White poults were wing-banded at random, weighed, and divided into three lots of 20 poults each. The three lots were then
placed in an electric battery brooder where they remained for 26 days before being transferred to a developing battery for the remainder of a 51-day period. The poults in all lots received the same care and the same turkey-starting rations, except for feed particle size. (The composition of this ration is shown in Table 5.) The ration was prepared in three different feed particle sizes by first grinding the whole corn through a f" hammer mill screen and then mixing the other ingredients as obtained from the processor. This lot of feed was then divided into three equal parts. One-third of it was run through a 1/20" hammer mill screen to form the fine mash given to lot 1; another third was fed as it was to the poults in lot 2; and the other third was made into pellets about 3/32 X J" in size to form the feed for lot 3. A total of 1,165 grams of the coarser mash was placed in the troughs with the pellets during the first week to help start the poults eating the pelleted feed. Records were kept of the feed and water consumed by each lot and weekly records were kept of each poult's weight. Adjustments in the records were made for the feed and water consumed by the poults that died. Observations were made of the tongue condition of each poult in all lots every day from the fifth through the twelfth day, with the exception of the sixth, and with only a few other exceptions every other day from then on during the remainder of the 51-day period. A summary of the findings of a major part of these observations are recorded in Table 1. Starting at seven days of age, certain poults with the curled tongue condition were treated with additional amounts of leucine or isoleucine, or a combination of these two amino acids. Two poults on fine mash were given 2 cc. each of an
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replaced by corn meal, pulverized oats, standard middlings, oat groats, or a combination of these ingredients, no incidence of curled tongue occurred. Draper (1951), reporting on field observations in Utah, states that, in his opinion, part of the curled tongue condition occurring among poults is undoubtedly due to too fine a feed. Two Virginia growers (Gill and Phillips, 1951) report that they had a fairly high incidence of curled tongue among Beltsville White poults fed a commercial mash or a finely ground farm-prepared mash; but that they have had no noticeable occurrence of the deformity since changing to pellets and/or a coarser type feed. Because of the experience of these growers, it was decided to include feed particle size in the study of this curled tongue problem. Ziegenhagen et al. (1947), Hayward (1950), and Robertson (1950) report that a greater growth rate is obtained when turkeys are fed the pelleted or granulartype mashes.
295
296
D. D. BRAGG TABLE
1.—:-Tongue
condition of poults on feeds of various particle sizes in Trial I {Figures indicate the total number of birds showing a particular condition)
)Vied, fine mash
Fine mash Normal
5 7 9 11 12 15 18 22 26 33 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
6 12 5 3 2 0 3 3 0 7 9 2 5 3 2 2 2 3
Pellets
Col- Feed Col- Feed Col- Feed Nor- ored caking Nor- ored caking ored caking Curled Curled in mal or or mal in Curled in or ridged mouth ridged mouth ridged mouth 0 3 9 10 12 14 12 13 17 10 8 16 12 15 16 16 16 15
9 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
5 5 6 6 6 6 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
16 14 6 8 4 2 11 6 6 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 3
isoleucine distilled water suspension each day for nine days. The suspension consisted of 5 grams of isoleucine and 50 cc. of water. The suspension was placed in the poult's crop through the use of a pipette. Each of two poults on medium-fine mash received 2 cc. of a leucine distilled water suspension each day for the first 11 days and 3 cc. each day for the next 12 days, or a total of 58 cc. of the suspension over a 23-day period. The leucine suspension consisted of 5 grams of leucine and 200 cc. of distilled water. Another two poults on fine mash received daily treatments with both the leucine and isoleucine suspensions. One of these poults was given 7 cc. of the isoleucine suspension and 49 cc. of the leucine suspension, and the other poult 9 cc. of the isoleucine suspension and 51 cc. of leucine suspension over a 21- and 23-day period. Four other poults on fine mash with curled tongues received no treatment and were used as controls. The leucine and isoleucine suspensions were thoroughly agitated before
0 3 11 7 10 14 4 7 11 15 15 14 12 13 11 13 13 14
3 0 0 2 3 0 1 4 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 0 0 0
0 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
19 15 13 18 17 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18
0 4 6 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
removing each dose from the containers' At the end of the 51-day period, which concluded the main part of the investigation with this trial, the poults were removed from the developing batteries and placed in a small lot where they all received the same commercial turkeygrowing ration. Their ration consisted of mash with just a few pellets for about four weeks and then all pellets with whole oats and a little cracked corn from then on until they were sold at a little over 16 weeks of age. Three observations were made of the turkeys' tongues during this period. The last observation was made at the time the turkeys were sold. At 14 weeks of age, two turkeys, which still had bad, but somewhat improved curled tongues, were removed from the rest of the flock and placed in separate coops in the brooder house. One of these turkeys was given fine mash and one capsule each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine per day for eight days and two capsules of each per day for seven
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Age of poults (in days)
C U R L E D T O N G U E IN T U R K E Y S
297
TABLE 2.—Tongue condition of poults on feed of various particle sizes in Trial 2 {Figures indicate total number of birds on both the home mixed and, commercial ration showing a particular condition) Fine mash Age of poults (in days)
26 21 14 14 11 8 4 4 2 5 3 2 10 4 5 9 8 13
Col- Feed Col- Feed Nor- ored caking Norored caking Curled in in Curled mal or mal or ridged mouth ridged mouth 8 15 20 24 25 31 34 35 36 33 35 36 27 33 32 28 29 24
5 2 5 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
32 33 27 25 21 24 20 20 12 6 6 10 16 16 11 10 10 15
7 6 12 14 18 15 19 19 27 33 33 29 23 23 28 29 29 24
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
36 35 36 37 38 39 40 40 39 39 40 39 40 40 40 39 34 39
Col- Feed ored caking Curled in or ridged mouth 3 4 3 2 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 5* 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
* Slightly ridged.
days for a total of 22 capsules or 66 grains of each of these amino acids over the 15day period. The other turkey was fed pellets without any treatment. The tongues of both birds were observed each day during the 15-day period. The fine mash given to the first turkey was the same as that fed to lot 1 earlier in the trial. Trial 2.—This trial consisted of a repetition of Trial 1, through the first 48 days, and the running of a similar trial with three lots of 20 poults each on a commercial turkey-starting ration containing the antibiotic terramycin. To help start the poults to eat the pelleted feed a total of 1,860 grams of the coarser home mixed mash was given to the lot fed the pelleted home mixed ration and a total of 1,380 grams of the regular ground commercial mash was given to the lot fed the commercial pellets. The fine commercial mash was prepared by running the regular coarse ground commercial turkey-starting mash through a 1/20"
hammer mill screen, the same as was used in preparing the fine, home-mixed feed. The commercial and home-mixed coarse mashes were about the same in feed particle size, but the commercial chick-size starting pellets were somewhat larger than the pellets made from the homemixed ration. Starting on the fourth day, the tongue of each poult in the trial was observed at least every other day during the forty-eight day period. A summary of findings of a major part of these observations are recorded in Table 2. Starting on the 30th day, poult number 73 in lot 1, which had the curled tongue deformity; was given one capsule each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine per day for 11 days and two capsules of each per day for eight days for a total of 27 grains of each of these amino acids over this 19 day period. Poult number 44 in lot 2 also had a curled tongue but was given no treatment. All turkeys were removed from the brooder house at the end of the forty-eight day period, except
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4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 28 32 36 40 42 46 48
Normal
Pellets
Sled, fine mash
298
D . D . BRAGG
turkeys number 73 and 44. T u r k e y number 73 was continued on the fine home mixed feed, and was given 6 grains each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine per day for a period of 18 days and turkey number 44, which was small and very weak, was fed pellets made from the home mixed ration without any treatment. The giving of the amino acids in capsule from allowed for more accurate measurement and easier dosage t h a n was possible through the use of pipette and suspension method. Two poults in lot 4 and one poult in
TABLE 3.—Tongue condition of poults on feeds of different particle size in Trial 3 {Figures indicate total number of birds in duplicate lots showing a particular condition) Fine mash (without antibiotic) Age of poults (in days)
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 21
Normal 29 24 24 13 15 16 15 13 14
Pellets (without antibiotic)
Fine mash (with bacitracin)
Col- Feed Col- Feed Col- Feed Nor- ored caking Nor- ored caking ored caking Curled mal Curled Curled mal in in or or in or ridged mouth ridged mouth ridged mouth 0 5 2 12 6 10 11 11 10
0 0 1 1 5 0 0 3 3
0
29 25 18 19 19 17 17 10 9
0 4 7 7 8 10 9 17 13
0 0 3 2 1 0 1 1 6
1 1 2 2 1 1 1 0 0
30 30 28 25 25 25 25 25 24
— 1 2 2 1 1 1 2
— — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — —
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FIG. 1. Photograph of poult showing curled tongue.
lot 6 with curled tongue were given no treatment. Weekly records were kept of each poult's weight and of the total amount of feed and water consumed b y each lot during the main trial period the same as for Trial 1. Trial 3.—This trial was conducted primarily to find out whether or not the antibiotic bacitracin had any effect on the appearance of the curled tongue condition and to make a further check on the relationship of feed particle size to the appearance of this deformity. Six lots of IS poults each were made up and handled in the same manner as described for Trials 1 and 2 and duplicate lots run for 15 days on feed of different particle size with and without the antibiotic. Two of the lots received a fine feed without an antibiotic, two received a fine feed containing 75 grams of "Baciferm 5 " or 166 milligrams of pure bacitracin to 50 pounds of feed, and two received pelleted feed without an antibiotic. T h e basic composition of the ration, and the feed particle size of the fine and pelleted feeds were the same as t h a t used in Trial 1 and the first three lots of Trial 2. Records were kept on the a m o u n t of feed consumed by each lot during the first two weeks and weekly weight records
CURLED TONGUE IN TURKEYS
were kept on each poult for the entire three week period but no records were kept of water consumption as was done in the other two trials. The tongue of each poult was observed every other day from the 1st through the 15th day plus a final observation on the 21st day. For a summary of the results of these observations see Table 3. No treatment was given to the two poults in lot 3 and the one poult in lot 1 which had curled tongue.
Since the curled tongue deformity seemed to appear at a very early age, the tongues of a total of 2,442 poults were examined at two different hatcheries to check on the incidence of this abnormality among day old poults. RESULTS
In Trial 1, eight poults on the fine mash and two poults on the medium-fine mash were found with the curled tongue condition, but no incidence of the deformity was found among the poults fed pellets. In Trial 2, one poult on the fine, home-mixed ration, two poults on the fine, commercial ration, one poult on the medium-fine, home-mixed ration, and one poult on the commercial, chick-size pellets were found to have the curled tongue deformity. In Trial 3, one poult in one of the lots that were fed the finely ground feed without an antibiotic and two poults in one of the lots fed the finely ground feed with the antibiotic "bacitracin" were found with this curled tongue abnormality. No incidence of the deformity was found among the poults in the two lots fed pellets. In Trial 1, five of the eight poults with curled tongues, in the lot fed the fine mash, had the abnormality when they were checked for the first time at five days of age. The other three poults developed
the condition between 7 and 11 days of age. The tongues of six of these eight poults were normal except for off-coloring and/or ridging by the time they were 26 days of age. The tongues of the other two poults in this lot remained curled throughout the first 51 days or the main part of the trial. The curl was gone from the tongue of one of the two poults treated with isoleucine by the 11th day, or four days after the treatment began, and it had disappeared from the other poult's tongue by the 28th day, or 11 days after the treatment began. The curled tongue condition had disappeared from the tongue of one of the two poults treated with leucine by the 22nd day or 15 days after the treatment began, and at 33 days of age or 26 days after the treatment began, it was no longer present in the second poult. The tongues of the two poults treated with both the leucine and isoleucine were still curled at the end of the 51-day period. At 14 weeks of age, these two turkeys were removed from the rest of the flock and given special treatment. One of the turkeys (No. 28) received the fine, home-mixed ration and 66 grains each of the three amino acids— leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine— over a 15-day period, and the other received the home-mixed pelleted ration. The tongues of both birds were practically normal at 109 days of age. The curl disappeared from both tongues at about the same time. In Trial 2, poult No. 73, which was given a total of 135 grains each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine over a 37day period; and poult No. 44, which had been fed the medium-fine, home-mixed ration and then pellets during the 18 days of the special trial period, both had curled tongues at 66 days of age. Poult No. 44, which was fed the medium-fine, homemixed ration; poult No. 70, which was fed
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FIELD OBSERVATION
299
300
D. D. BRAGG
In Trial 3, two poults with curled tongues (one on fine feed with the bacitracin and the other on fine feed without an antibiotic) had curled tongues when examined for the first time at one day of age. The poult on the fine feed with the bacitracin died at nine days of age and the curled tongue deformity of the other disappeared at about 15 days of age. The curled tongue condition developed in another poult on the fine feed with the bacitracin at about five days of age and disappeared at about 15 days of age. A comparison of feed consumption, growth and average weight gains per gram of feed consumed is shown below in Table 4. A small amount of the curled tongue
abnormality was found to exist among Beltsville White poults at hatching time. Two poults out of 692 examined at one hatchery and three poults out of 1,750 examined at another hatchery were found to have the curled tongue when examined shortly after being removed from the incubator. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
A calculation of the amino acid content of the home-mixed ration fed to 12 of the 15 lots in this experiment showed the isoleucine content of this feed to be 1.42 percent, the leucine 2.05 percent, and the phenylalaine 1.27 percent. According to these calculations, these three amino acids were present at levels equivalent to from 1.2 to 2.3 times the known chick requirements, and about 1.7 times the estimated isoleucine requirement for poults based on incomplete analysis of experiments just completed at the University of California (Kratzer, 1951). Information published by Williams (1951) giving the amino acid content of various feed stuffs was used in the calculation of the isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine content of all ingredients in the homemixed ration except the alfalfa leaf meal. The data given by Schweigert (1947) was
TABLE 4.—Comparison of feed consumption and growth of poults on feeds of various particle sizes Trial 3 (15 days) (Duplicate lots)
Trial 2 (48 days) Trial 1 (51 days) Home mixed feed Fine
Med. fine
Pellets
Fine
Med. fine
Pellets
Commercial ration Fine
Med. fine
Pellets
Fine feeds Without antibiotic
With bacitracin
Pellets Without antibiotic
Average feed consumption per poult 2,449 2,515 2,664 211.7 232 2,739 2,800 2,564 2,774 2,205 180.3 2,507 (grams) Average weight 190.0 216 173.8 gains per 770.7 976 1,143 896.5 1,115.1 1,166.6 76.2 109.2 84.5 953.4 1,001.5 1,184.2 poult (grams) 72.7 85.0 76.7 Average feed 2.34 2.86 2.80 2.44 2.73 2.25 2.28 2.78 2.13 2.13 required per 2.63 2.56 2.61 2.54 2.25 gram of gain Average water consumption per poults 15.6 13.1 14.7 14.0 15.5 19.5 12.7 (Pints) 18.1 — — — 16.3
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the fine, commercial ration; and poult No. 96, which was fed the chick-size commercial pellets all had curled tongues when they were examined for the first time at four days of age. However, poult No. 73, which was fed thefine,home-mixed ration, developed the curled tongue at about 22 days of age; and poult No. 16, which was fed the fine, commercial ration, developed the deformity at six days of age. The curled tongue condition disappeared from poult No. 16 in about two days, and was no longer evident in poults 70 and 96 at 14 days of age.
CURLED TONGUE IN TURKEYS
TABLE 5.—Formula of home-mixed ration used in this experiment Ingredient
Percent
Pounds
Ground yellow corn Wheat flour middlings Soybean oil meal Ground heavy oats Fish meal Meat scrap Dried skim milk Dried whey Dried brewer's yeast Alfalfa leaf meal Steam bone meal Iodized salt Fish liver oil (2,000A 400D)
17.5 15 30 10 5 5 5 2.5 5 2.5 1 0.5 1
87§ 75 150 50 25 25 25 12| 25 12§ 5
Total
100
'
&2
5 500
NOTE: 5 lbs. of ground limestone and \ lb. of
manganese sulfate (67 percent MnS04) was also added to each 500 lb. mixture.
rence of a greater incidence of curled tongue among poults in the lots fed the fine feed, than among those on coarser or pelleted-type feed seemed to bear out the field observations made in Utah by Draper (1951) and in Virginia by Gill and Phillips (1951). There is a possibility that the curled tongue abnormality is genetic. This is hinted because five out of 2,442 poults examined at hatching time were found with the deformity. There also exists a possibility of a genetic difference in the nutritional reKratzer (1951) states that it seems im- quirements of breeder hens which may probable that isoleucine is the factor in- allow for a small percent of day-old volved in the curled tongue problem. poults being hatched with the curled Almquist (1951) points out that, generally tongue abnormality. If this condition is speaking, it has not been possible to nutritional in nature, there could be a difdemonstrate deficiencies of leucine, iso- ference in the depletion of body reserves leucine, and phenylalanine in chick and in those breeder hens that had laid the turkey diets such as the home-mixed for- largest number of eggs which might likemula used in this experiment. Grau (1951) wise allow for a small percentage of states that, from casual observation, it is poults being hatched with the curled quite obvious that all of the feed stuffs in tongue condition. the home-mixed ration used in this experiIn Trial 1 and 2, where records were ment were fairly good sources of the three kept of both feed and water consumption amino acids under consideration. of each lot, the poults on the fine mash In the trials herein reported, the occur- consumed the least feed and water, and
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used in calculating these amino acids in the alfalfa leaf meal. In addition to what seemed to be more than adequate amounts of isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine in the ration, various poults with the curled tongue condition were given additional amounts of one or more of these three amino acids, without bringing about a significant speed-up in the clearing up of this deformity. In Trial 1, the curled tongues of the two poults treated with isoleucine cleared up somewhat faster than in those poults treated with leucine or a combination of leucine and isoleucine. However, some of the poults given no treatment and used as checks made a spontaneous recovery, which was about as rapid as that of the poults treated with isoleucine. Also, the tongues of two poults treated with both the leucine and isoleucine were still curled at the end of a 51-day period. At 14 weeks of age, one of these two poults was treated with 66 grains each of leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine over a 15-day period, but the condition failed to clear up any faster than it did in the other poult given no treatment. A poult in Trial 2 given a total of 135 grains each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine over a 37-day period still had a curled tongue at 66 days of age.
301
302
D. D. BRAGG
The increased growth among poults fed pellets or the coarser type feed in this experiment bears out the work reported by Ziegenhagen et al. (1947) as well as that reported by Hayward (1950) and Robertson (1950). However, the difference in growth between the pelleted and mash feeds may be related to some extent to the energy value of the ration. Scott (1951) reports that there is greater growth on pelleted, low energy ration than there is on the pelleted high energy rations when compared with the respective regular ground mashes. There was considerable variation in the feed consumption and weight gain per bird between the lots fed the same ration in Trial 3: however, the feed consumptions and weight gain per poult, as well as gain per gram of feed consumed, was noticeably greater for the poults fed the fine
feed with the bacitracin than for the poults fed fine feed without an antibiotic. The poults fed pellets in this trial made about the same gain per gram of feed consumed as did the birds fed the fine feed with the bacitracin; however, they did not consume quite as much feed and their average weight was not quite as great. In this trial, as in the other two, there seemed to be a preference among the poults for mash instead of pellets during the first two or three weeks, but after that they seemed to prefer pellets. A similar observation was also reported by Ziegenhagen (1947). Spontaneous recoveries were made among poults in all trials. Curled tongue was not evident in any of the ten poults affected with the deformity in Trial 1 when they were sold at approximately 16 weeks of age. Only two of the five birds affected in Trial 2 had curled tongues at 48 days of age, and the condition had disappeared from two untreated poults in Trial 3 at about 15 days of age. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
On the basis of this experiment and the writer's field observations, it is concluded that: 1. A low incidence of curled tongue exists at hatching time. This may be explained by a fairly rare recessive genetic factor or a genetic difference in the nutritional requirements of the breeder hen, or the differential depletion of nutrients in a few breeder hens in the flock supplying the hatching eggs. 2. A greater incidence of this condition occurs among poults fed fine mash than among those fed a coarser type ration. 3. Under normal growing conditions, it appears that the deformity is not caused by a deficiency of the amino acids— leucine, isoleucine, or phenylalanine—in the poults' diet.
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the poults fed the pellets consumed the most feed and water. However, there was no significant difference in the amount of water consumed by the poults on the regular ground, commercial mash and the chick-size, commerical pellets. The pelleted feed produced the greatest growth per gram of feed consumed with only one exception, the medium-fine or regular ground mash produced the next best growth, and the fine mash produced the least growth per gram of feed consumed. The greater growth and larger size of poults on the pelleted feed was probably due to some extent to the greater feed and water consumption among poults in these lots; and the appreciable quantities of feed lost in the watering vessels of the birds on the fine mash may have accounted to some extent for the poorer feed economy of the poults on the fine feed. There was no significant difference in the gain per unit of feed consumed by poults on the regular ground and pelleted, commerical ration.
BACTERIAL PENETRATION OF EGGS
4. Curled tongue was not prevented by the antibiotic bacitracin or terramycin in the quantities used in the rations of this experiment. 5. Feeding poults pellets or the coarser mashes to seven weeks of age produced greater body weight and greater gain per unit of feed consumed than did the finer mashes. REFERENCES
of the tongue associated with amino acid deficiencies in the chick. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 59: 177-178. Hayward, J. W., 1950. Modern feeds are better. Turkey World 25(4): 11. Hudson, C. B., 1939. Curled tongue in young poults. J. Amer. Vet. Med. Assn. 47: 662. Kratzer, F. H., 1951. Personal correspondence. Robertson, E. I., 1950. The response of poults to animal protein, feed particle size, and antibiotics. Poultry Sci. 29: 777. Schweigert, B. S., 1947. Amino acid content of feeds. J. Nutrition 33: 553-559. Scott, M. L., 1951. Personal communication and correspondence. Williams, H. H., 1951. Studies of the amino acid composition of feedstuffs. Feedstuffs 23(6): 17. Ziegenhagen, E. H., L. B. Corman and J. W. Hayward. 1947. Feed particle size as a factor affecting performance of turkey poults. Poultry Sci. 26: 212-214.
Some Factors Influencing Bacterial Penetration of Eggs 1 W. A. MILLER AND L. B. CRAWFORD Department of Bacteriology, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kansas (Received for publication August 15, 1952)
A
SIGNIFICANT percentage of commercial eggs undergo marked deterioration in quality or even complete spoilage before reaching the consumer. The prevalent opinion is that microorganisms play a dominant role in this deterioration, a concept supported by the fact that parallel with or preceding deterioration there is frequently mass growth of bacteria in the egg. Views expressed in the literature relative to the influence of various factors upon the microbial content and growth in eggs are rather divergent. The available data are fairly consistent, however, in indicating that only a small proportion of freshly-laid eggs contains living organisms, 1 Contribution No. 276, Department of Bacteriology, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kansas.
and that in these, the number of bacteria is relatively low (Tanner, 1944). Furthermore, it has been observed repeatedly that eggs held or stored under a variety of environmental conditions exhibit extremely wide individual variation in the rate at which deterioration in quality takes place. This is true even when the environmental conditions would seem to be almost ideal for microbial growth (Lorenz et al., 1952). These facts would indicate marked variability in one or more of the factors influencing the entrance into and subsequent development of egg-spoilage bacteria in different eggs. A number of explanations have been offered for these differences, but none has been supported by adequate experimental proof. An experimental project was initiated
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Almquist, H. J., 1951. Personal correspondence. Almquist, H. J., and C. R. Grau, 1944. The amino acid requirements of the chick. J. Nutrition 28: 325-331. Draper, C. I., 1951. Personal correspondence. Gill, V., and R. H. Phillips, 1951. Personal communication. Grau, C. R., 1951. Personal correspondence. Grau, C. R., and H. J. Almquist, 1945. Deformities
303
Department of Poultry Husbandry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia (Received for publication August 12, 1952) INTRODUCTION
Hudson (1939) appears to have been the first to publish an account of this condition in turkeys. Personal correspondence with specialists at agricultural colleges or experiment stations in 28 of the leading turkey-producing states and with 14 of the larger feed companies, and a review of the available literature revealed the existence of this abnormal condition in several turkey-producing areas in the United States, but no evidence was Condensed from a thesis submitted by the author to the faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science Degree.
found of any experimental work to determine its cause, cure, or prevention. Almquist and Grau (1944) report that isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine are essential requirements in the diet of chicks. In subsequent publications, they (Grau and Almquist, 1945) state that the folding back of the tip of the tongue in chicks is caused by a deficiency of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine; whereas, deficiencies of protein or several other amino acids have no effect. They further state that gradual healing occurs about a week after the chicks are placed on an adequate diet. However, Almquist (1951) and Grau (1951), also commented that, generally speaking, it is not possible to demonstrate deficiencies of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine in chick and turkey diets, based upon practical ingredients normally used in these feeds. Scott (1951) found a very high incidence of the curled tongue among a lot of poults used in an experiment testing various high energy ingredients as carbohydrate sources. After calculating the amount of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine in the ration to be 1.3 times the known chick requirement, he concludes that the curled tongue condition was not caused by a deficiency of an amino acid in this case, but was probably due instead to the high amount of red dog flour in the ration which pasted up in the beaks of the poults and caused the tongue to curl back mechanically. He further stated that when the level of red dog flour was reduced or
294
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D
URING recent years a deformity of the tongue in young turkeys (especially among the Small Whites) has caused considerable trouble to certain growers in several of the major turkeyproducing areas in the United States. The deformity most generally observed is the curling or folding back of the distal end of the tongue onto the dorsal surface, this condition being noticed at a rather early age. Although there is seemingly only a small amount of mortality among turkeys because of this trouble, there is often considerable financial loss, especially in turkey broilers, due to retarded growth caused by the birds' inability to eat normally. Many seem to believe that this deformity is caused by an amino acid deficiency in the poults' diet. However, the condition frequently has been found among poults that have been fed apparently adequate rations.
CURLED TONGUE IN TURKEYS
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Three trials were conducted with Beltsville White poults in batteries to determine the incidence of curled tongue among poults on feeds of different particle size, the effect of such feed particle size on growth and development, and to attempt correction of the curled tongue condition through the use of additional amounts of isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine in the diet. In addition to the above trials two trips were made to hatcheries to check on the incidence of the curled tongue deformity among day old poults. Trial /.—Sixty day-old Beltsville White poults were wing-banded at random, weighed, and divided into three lots of 20 poults each. The three lots were then
placed in an electric battery brooder where they remained for 26 days before being transferred to a developing battery for the remainder of a 51-day period. The poults in all lots received the same care and the same turkey-starting rations, except for feed particle size. (The composition of this ration is shown in Table 5.) The ration was prepared in three different feed particle sizes by first grinding the whole corn through a f" hammer mill screen and then mixing the other ingredients as obtained from the processor. This lot of feed was then divided into three equal parts. One-third of it was run through a 1/20" hammer mill screen to form the fine mash given to lot 1; another third was fed as it was to the poults in lot 2; and the other third was made into pellets about 3/32 X J" in size to form the feed for lot 3. A total of 1,165 grams of the coarser mash was placed in the troughs with the pellets during the first week to help start the poults eating the pelleted feed. Records were kept of the feed and water consumed by each lot and weekly records were kept of each poult's weight. Adjustments in the records were made for the feed and water consumed by the poults that died. Observations were made of the tongue condition of each poult in all lots every day from the fifth through the twelfth day, with the exception of the sixth, and with only a few other exceptions every other day from then on during the remainder of the 51-day period. A summary of the findings of a major part of these observations are recorded in Table 1. Starting at seven days of age, certain poults with the curled tongue condition were treated with additional amounts of leucine or isoleucine, or a combination of these two amino acids. Two poults on fine mash were given 2 cc. each of an
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replaced by corn meal, pulverized oats, standard middlings, oat groats, or a combination of these ingredients, no incidence of curled tongue occurred. Draper (1951), reporting on field observations in Utah, states that, in his opinion, part of the curled tongue condition occurring among poults is undoubtedly due to too fine a feed. Two Virginia growers (Gill and Phillips, 1951) report that they had a fairly high incidence of curled tongue among Beltsville White poults fed a commercial mash or a finely ground farm-prepared mash; but that they have had no noticeable occurrence of the deformity since changing to pellets and/or a coarser type feed. Because of the experience of these growers, it was decided to include feed particle size in the study of this curled tongue problem. Ziegenhagen et al. (1947), Hayward (1950), and Robertson (1950) report that a greater growth rate is obtained when turkeys are fed the pelleted or granulartype mashes.
295
296
D. D. BRAGG TABLE
1.—:-Tongue
condition of poults on feeds of various particle sizes in Trial I {Figures indicate the total number of birds showing a particular condition)
)Vied, fine mash
Fine mash Normal
5 7 9 11 12 15 18 22 26 33 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
6 12 5 3 2 0 3 3 0 7 9 2 5 3 2 2 2 3
Pellets
Col- Feed Col- Feed Col- Feed Nor- ored caking Nor- ored caking ored caking Curled Curled in mal or or mal in Curled in or ridged mouth ridged mouth ridged mouth 0 3 9 10 12 14 12 13 17 10 8 16 12 15 16 16 16 15
9 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
5 5 6 6 6 6 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
16 14 6 8 4 2 11 6 6 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 3
isoleucine distilled water suspension each day for nine days. The suspension consisted of 5 grams of isoleucine and 50 cc. of water. The suspension was placed in the poult's crop through the use of a pipette. Each of two poults on medium-fine mash received 2 cc. of a leucine distilled water suspension each day for the first 11 days and 3 cc. each day for the next 12 days, or a total of 58 cc. of the suspension over a 23-day period. The leucine suspension consisted of 5 grams of leucine and 200 cc. of distilled water. Another two poults on fine mash received daily treatments with both the leucine and isoleucine suspensions. One of these poults was given 7 cc. of the isoleucine suspension and 49 cc. of the leucine suspension, and the other poult 9 cc. of the isoleucine suspension and 51 cc. of leucine suspension over a 21- and 23-day period. Four other poults on fine mash with curled tongues received no treatment and were used as controls. The leucine and isoleucine suspensions were thoroughly agitated before
0 3 11 7 10 14 4 7 11 15 15 14 12 13 11 13 13 14
3 0 0 2 3 0 1 4 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 0 0 0
0 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
19 15 13 18 17 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18
0 4 6 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
removing each dose from the containers' At the end of the 51-day period, which concluded the main part of the investigation with this trial, the poults were removed from the developing batteries and placed in a small lot where they all received the same commercial turkeygrowing ration. Their ration consisted of mash with just a few pellets for about four weeks and then all pellets with whole oats and a little cracked corn from then on until they were sold at a little over 16 weeks of age. Three observations were made of the turkeys' tongues during this period. The last observation was made at the time the turkeys were sold. At 14 weeks of age, two turkeys, which still had bad, but somewhat improved curled tongues, were removed from the rest of the flock and placed in separate coops in the brooder house. One of these turkeys was given fine mash and one capsule each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine per day for eight days and two capsules of each per day for seven
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Age of poults (in days)
C U R L E D T O N G U E IN T U R K E Y S
297
TABLE 2.—Tongue condition of poults on feed of various particle sizes in Trial 2 {Figures indicate total number of birds on both the home mixed and, commercial ration showing a particular condition) Fine mash Age of poults (in days)
26 21 14 14 11 8 4 4 2 5 3 2 10 4 5 9 8 13
Col- Feed Col- Feed Nor- ored caking Norored caking Curled in in Curled mal or mal or ridged mouth ridged mouth 8 15 20 24 25 31 34 35 36 33 35 36 27 33 32 28 29 24
5 2 5 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
32 33 27 25 21 24 20 20 12 6 6 10 16 16 11 10 10 15
7 6 12 14 18 15 19 19 27 33 33 29 23 23 28 29 29 24
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
36 35 36 37 38 39 40 40 39 39 40 39 40 40 40 39 34 39
Col- Feed ored caking Curled in or ridged mouth 3 4 3 2 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 5* 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
* Slightly ridged.
days for a total of 22 capsules or 66 grains of each of these amino acids over the 15day period. The other turkey was fed pellets without any treatment. The tongues of both birds were observed each day during the 15-day period. The fine mash given to the first turkey was the same as that fed to lot 1 earlier in the trial. Trial 2.—This trial consisted of a repetition of Trial 1, through the first 48 days, and the running of a similar trial with three lots of 20 poults each on a commercial turkey-starting ration containing the antibiotic terramycin. To help start the poults to eat the pelleted feed a total of 1,860 grams of the coarser home mixed mash was given to the lot fed the pelleted home mixed ration and a total of 1,380 grams of the regular ground commercial mash was given to the lot fed the commercial pellets. The fine commercial mash was prepared by running the regular coarse ground commercial turkey-starting mash through a 1/20"
hammer mill screen, the same as was used in preparing the fine, home-mixed feed. The commercial and home-mixed coarse mashes were about the same in feed particle size, but the commercial chick-size starting pellets were somewhat larger than the pellets made from the homemixed ration. Starting on the fourth day, the tongue of each poult in the trial was observed at least every other day during the forty-eight day period. A summary of findings of a major part of these observations are recorded in Table 2. Starting on the 30th day, poult number 73 in lot 1, which had the curled tongue deformity; was given one capsule each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine per day for 11 days and two capsules of each per day for eight days for a total of 27 grains of each of these amino acids over this 19 day period. Poult number 44 in lot 2 also had a curled tongue but was given no treatment. All turkeys were removed from the brooder house at the end of the forty-eight day period, except
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4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 28 32 36 40 42 46 48
Normal
Pellets
Sled, fine mash
298
D . D . BRAGG
turkeys number 73 and 44. T u r k e y number 73 was continued on the fine home mixed feed, and was given 6 grains each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine per day for a period of 18 days and turkey number 44, which was small and very weak, was fed pellets made from the home mixed ration without any treatment. The giving of the amino acids in capsule from allowed for more accurate measurement and easier dosage t h a n was possible through the use of pipette and suspension method. Two poults in lot 4 and one poult in
TABLE 3.—Tongue condition of poults on feeds of different particle size in Trial 3 {Figures indicate total number of birds in duplicate lots showing a particular condition) Fine mash (without antibiotic) Age of poults (in days)
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 21
Normal 29 24 24 13 15 16 15 13 14
Pellets (without antibiotic)
Fine mash (with bacitracin)
Col- Feed Col- Feed Col- Feed Nor- ored caking Nor- ored caking ored caking Curled mal Curled Curled mal in in or or in or ridged mouth ridged mouth ridged mouth 0 5 2 12 6 10 11 11 10
0 0 1 1 5 0 0 3 3
0
29 25 18 19 19 17 17 10 9
0 4 7 7 8 10 9 17 13
0 0 3 2 1 0 1 1 6
1 1 2 2 1 1 1 0 0
30 30 28 25 25 25 25 25 24
— 1 2 2 1 1 1 2
— — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — —
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FIG. 1. Photograph of poult showing curled tongue.
lot 6 with curled tongue were given no treatment. Weekly records were kept of each poult's weight and of the total amount of feed and water consumed b y each lot during the main trial period the same as for Trial 1. Trial 3.—This trial was conducted primarily to find out whether or not the antibiotic bacitracin had any effect on the appearance of the curled tongue condition and to make a further check on the relationship of feed particle size to the appearance of this deformity. Six lots of IS poults each were made up and handled in the same manner as described for Trials 1 and 2 and duplicate lots run for 15 days on feed of different particle size with and without the antibiotic. Two of the lots received a fine feed without an antibiotic, two received a fine feed containing 75 grams of "Baciferm 5 " or 166 milligrams of pure bacitracin to 50 pounds of feed, and two received pelleted feed without an antibiotic. T h e basic composition of the ration, and the feed particle size of the fine and pelleted feeds were the same as t h a t used in Trial 1 and the first three lots of Trial 2. Records were kept on the a m o u n t of feed consumed by each lot during the first two weeks and weekly weight records
CURLED TONGUE IN TURKEYS
were kept on each poult for the entire three week period but no records were kept of water consumption as was done in the other two trials. The tongue of each poult was observed every other day from the 1st through the 15th day plus a final observation on the 21st day. For a summary of the results of these observations see Table 3. No treatment was given to the two poults in lot 3 and the one poult in lot 1 which had curled tongue.
Since the curled tongue deformity seemed to appear at a very early age, the tongues of a total of 2,442 poults were examined at two different hatcheries to check on the incidence of this abnormality among day old poults. RESULTS
In Trial 1, eight poults on the fine mash and two poults on the medium-fine mash were found with the curled tongue condition, but no incidence of the deformity was found among the poults fed pellets. In Trial 2, one poult on the fine, home-mixed ration, two poults on the fine, commercial ration, one poult on the medium-fine, home-mixed ration, and one poult on the commercial, chick-size pellets were found to have the curled tongue deformity. In Trial 3, one poult in one of the lots that were fed the finely ground feed without an antibiotic and two poults in one of the lots fed the finely ground feed with the antibiotic "bacitracin" were found with this curled tongue abnormality. No incidence of the deformity was found among the poults in the two lots fed pellets. In Trial 1, five of the eight poults with curled tongues, in the lot fed the fine mash, had the abnormality when they were checked for the first time at five days of age. The other three poults developed
the condition between 7 and 11 days of age. The tongues of six of these eight poults were normal except for off-coloring and/or ridging by the time they were 26 days of age. The tongues of the other two poults in this lot remained curled throughout the first 51 days or the main part of the trial. The curl was gone from the tongue of one of the two poults treated with isoleucine by the 11th day, or four days after the treatment began, and it had disappeared from the other poult's tongue by the 28th day, or 11 days after the treatment began. The curled tongue condition had disappeared from the tongue of one of the two poults treated with leucine by the 22nd day or 15 days after the treatment began, and at 33 days of age or 26 days after the treatment began, it was no longer present in the second poult. The tongues of the two poults treated with both the leucine and isoleucine were still curled at the end of the 51-day period. At 14 weeks of age, these two turkeys were removed from the rest of the flock and given special treatment. One of the turkeys (No. 28) received the fine, home-mixed ration and 66 grains each of the three amino acids— leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine— over a 15-day period, and the other received the home-mixed pelleted ration. The tongues of both birds were practically normal at 109 days of age. The curl disappeared from both tongues at about the same time. In Trial 2, poult No. 73, which was given a total of 135 grains each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine over a 37day period; and poult No. 44, which had been fed the medium-fine, home-mixed ration and then pellets during the 18 days of the special trial period, both had curled tongues at 66 days of age. Poult No. 44, which was fed the medium-fine, homemixed ration; poult No. 70, which was fed
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FIELD OBSERVATION
299
300
D. D. BRAGG
In Trial 3, two poults with curled tongues (one on fine feed with the bacitracin and the other on fine feed without an antibiotic) had curled tongues when examined for the first time at one day of age. The poult on the fine feed with the bacitracin died at nine days of age and the curled tongue deformity of the other disappeared at about 15 days of age. The curled tongue condition developed in another poult on the fine feed with the bacitracin at about five days of age and disappeared at about 15 days of age. A comparison of feed consumption, growth and average weight gains per gram of feed consumed is shown below in Table 4. A small amount of the curled tongue
abnormality was found to exist among Beltsville White poults at hatching time. Two poults out of 692 examined at one hatchery and three poults out of 1,750 examined at another hatchery were found to have the curled tongue when examined shortly after being removed from the incubator. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
A calculation of the amino acid content of the home-mixed ration fed to 12 of the 15 lots in this experiment showed the isoleucine content of this feed to be 1.42 percent, the leucine 2.05 percent, and the phenylalaine 1.27 percent. According to these calculations, these three amino acids were present at levels equivalent to from 1.2 to 2.3 times the known chick requirements, and about 1.7 times the estimated isoleucine requirement for poults based on incomplete analysis of experiments just completed at the University of California (Kratzer, 1951). Information published by Williams (1951) giving the amino acid content of various feed stuffs was used in the calculation of the isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine content of all ingredients in the homemixed ration except the alfalfa leaf meal. The data given by Schweigert (1947) was
TABLE 4.—Comparison of feed consumption and growth of poults on feeds of various particle sizes Trial 3 (15 days) (Duplicate lots)
Trial 2 (48 days) Trial 1 (51 days) Home mixed feed Fine
Med. fine
Pellets
Fine
Med. fine
Pellets
Commercial ration Fine
Med. fine
Pellets
Fine feeds Without antibiotic
With bacitracin
Pellets Without antibiotic
Average feed consumption per poult 2,449 2,515 2,664 211.7 232 2,739 2,800 2,564 2,774 2,205 180.3 2,507 (grams) Average weight 190.0 216 173.8 gains per 770.7 976 1,143 896.5 1,115.1 1,166.6 76.2 109.2 84.5 953.4 1,001.5 1,184.2 poult (grams) 72.7 85.0 76.7 Average feed 2.34 2.86 2.80 2.44 2.73 2.25 2.28 2.78 2.13 2.13 required per 2.63 2.56 2.61 2.54 2.25 gram of gain Average water consumption per poults 15.6 13.1 14.7 14.0 15.5 19.5 12.7 (Pints) 18.1 — — — 16.3
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the fine, commercial ration; and poult No. 96, which was fed the chick-size commercial pellets all had curled tongues when they were examined for the first time at four days of age. However, poult No. 73, which was fed thefine,home-mixed ration, developed the curled tongue at about 22 days of age; and poult No. 16, which was fed the fine, commercial ration, developed the deformity at six days of age. The curled tongue condition disappeared from poult No. 16 in about two days, and was no longer evident in poults 70 and 96 at 14 days of age.
CURLED TONGUE IN TURKEYS
TABLE 5.—Formula of home-mixed ration used in this experiment Ingredient
Percent
Pounds
Ground yellow corn Wheat flour middlings Soybean oil meal Ground heavy oats Fish meal Meat scrap Dried skim milk Dried whey Dried brewer's yeast Alfalfa leaf meal Steam bone meal Iodized salt Fish liver oil (2,000A 400D)
17.5 15 30 10 5 5 5 2.5 5 2.5 1 0.5 1
87§ 75 150 50 25 25 25 12| 25 12§ 5
Total
100
'
&2
5 500
NOTE: 5 lbs. of ground limestone and \ lb. of
manganese sulfate (67 percent MnS04) was also added to each 500 lb. mixture.
rence of a greater incidence of curled tongue among poults in the lots fed the fine feed, than among those on coarser or pelleted-type feed seemed to bear out the field observations made in Utah by Draper (1951) and in Virginia by Gill and Phillips (1951). There is a possibility that the curled tongue abnormality is genetic. This is hinted because five out of 2,442 poults examined at hatching time were found with the deformity. There also exists a possibility of a genetic difference in the nutritional reKratzer (1951) states that it seems im- quirements of breeder hens which may probable that isoleucine is the factor in- allow for a small percent of day-old volved in the curled tongue problem. poults being hatched with the curled Almquist (1951) points out that, generally tongue abnormality. If this condition is speaking, it has not been possible to nutritional in nature, there could be a difdemonstrate deficiencies of leucine, iso- ference in the depletion of body reserves leucine, and phenylalanine in chick and in those breeder hens that had laid the turkey diets such as the home-mixed for- largest number of eggs which might likemula used in this experiment. Grau (1951) wise allow for a small percentage of states that, from casual observation, it is poults being hatched with the curled quite obvious that all of the feed stuffs in tongue condition. the home-mixed ration used in this experiIn Trial 1 and 2, where records were ment were fairly good sources of the three kept of both feed and water consumption amino acids under consideration. of each lot, the poults on the fine mash In the trials herein reported, the occur- consumed the least feed and water, and
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used in calculating these amino acids in the alfalfa leaf meal. In addition to what seemed to be more than adequate amounts of isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine in the ration, various poults with the curled tongue condition were given additional amounts of one or more of these three amino acids, without bringing about a significant speed-up in the clearing up of this deformity. In Trial 1, the curled tongues of the two poults treated with isoleucine cleared up somewhat faster than in those poults treated with leucine or a combination of leucine and isoleucine. However, some of the poults given no treatment and used as checks made a spontaneous recovery, which was about as rapid as that of the poults treated with isoleucine. Also, the tongues of two poults treated with both the leucine and isoleucine were still curled at the end of a 51-day period. At 14 weeks of age, one of these two poults was treated with 66 grains each of leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine over a 15-day period, but the condition failed to clear up any faster than it did in the other poult given no treatment. A poult in Trial 2 given a total of 135 grains each of leucine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine over a 37-day period still had a curled tongue at 66 days of age.
301
302
D. D. BRAGG
The increased growth among poults fed pellets or the coarser type feed in this experiment bears out the work reported by Ziegenhagen et al. (1947) as well as that reported by Hayward (1950) and Robertson (1950). However, the difference in growth between the pelleted and mash feeds may be related to some extent to the energy value of the ration. Scott (1951) reports that there is greater growth on pelleted, low energy ration than there is on the pelleted high energy rations when compared with the respective regular ground mashes. There was considerable variation in the feed consumption and weight gain per bird between the lots fed the same ration in Trial 3: however, the feed consumptions and weight gain per poult, as well as gain per gram of feed consumed, was noticeably greater for the poults fed the fine
feed with the bacitracin than for the poults fed fine feed without an antibiotic. The poults fed pellets in this trial made about the same gain per gram of feed consumed as did the birds fed the fine feed with the bacitracin; however, they did not consume quite as much feed and their average weight was not quite as great. In this trial, as in the other two, there seemed to be a preference among the poults for mash instead of pellets during the first two or three weeks, but after that they seemed to prefer pellets. A similar observation was also reported by Ziegenhagen (1947). Spontaneous recoveries were made among poults in all trials. Curled tongue was not evident in any of the ten poults affected with the deformity in Trial 1 when they were sold at approximately 16 weeks of age. Only two of the five birds affected in Trial 2 had curled tongues at 48 days of age, and the condition had disappeared from two untreated poults in Trial 3 at about 15 days of age. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
On the basis of this experiment and the writer's field observations, it is concluded that: 1. A low incidence of curled tongue exists at hatching time. This may be explained by a fairly rare recessive genetic factor or a genetic difference in the nutritional requirements of the breeder hen, or the differential depletion of nutrients in a few breeder hens in the flock supplying the hatching eggs. 2. A greater incidence of this condition occurs among poults fed fine mash than among those fed a coarser type ration. 3. Under normal growing conditions, it appears that the deformity is not caused by a deficiency of the amino acids— leucine, isoleucine, or phenylalanine—in the poults' diet.
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the poults fed the pellets consumed the most feed and water. However, there was no significant difference in the amount of water consumed by the poults on the regular ground, commercial mash and the chick-size, commerical pellets. The pelleted feed produced the greatest growth per gram of feed consumed with only one exception, the medium-fine or regular ground mash produced the next best growth, and the fine mash produced the least growth per gram of feed consumed. The greater growth and larger size of poults on the pelleted feed was probably due to some extent to the greater feed and water consumption among poults in these lots; and the appreciable quantities of feed lost in the watering vessels of the birds on the fine mash may have accounted to some extent for the poorer feed economy of the poults on the fine feed. There was no significant difference in the gain per unit of feed consumed by poults on the regular ground and pelleted, commerical ration.
BACTERIAL PENETRATION OF EGGS
4. Curled tongue was not prevented by the antibiotic bacitracin or terramycin in the quantities used in the rations of this experiment. 5. Feeding poults pellets or the coarser mashes to seven weeks of age produced greater body weight and greater gain per unit of feed consumed than did the finer mashes. REFERENCES
of the tongue associated with amino acid deficiencies in the chick. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 59: 177-178. Hayward, J. W., 1950. Modern feeds are better. Turkey World 25(4): 11. Hudson, C. B., 1939. Curled tongue in young poults. J. Amer. Vet. Med. Assn. 47: 662. Kratzer, F. H., 1951. Personal correspondence. Robertson, E. I., 1950. The response of poults to animal protein, feed particle size, and antibiotics. Poultry Sci. 29: 777. Schweigert, B. S., 1947. Amino acid content of feeds. J. Nutrition 33: 553-559. Scott, M. L., 1951. Personal communication and correspondence. Williams, H. H., 1951. Studies of the amino acid composition of feedstuffs. Feedstuffs 23(6): 17. Ziegenhagen, E. H., L. B. Corman and J. W. Hayward. 1947. Feed particle size as a factor affecting performance of turkey poults. Poultry Sci. 26: 212-214.
Some Factors Influencing Bacterial Penetration of Eggs 1 W. A. MILLER AND L. B. CRAWFORD Department of Bacteriology, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kansas (Received for publication August 15, 1952)
A
SIGNIFICANT percentage of commercial eggs undergo marked deterioration in quality or even complete spoilage before reaching the consumer. The prevalent opinion is that microorganisms play a dominant role in this deterioration, a concept supported by the fact that parallel with or preceding deterioration there is frequently mass growth of bacteria in the egg. Views expressed in the literature relative to the influence of various factors upon the microbial content and growth in eggs are rather divergent. The available data are fairly consistent, however, in indicating that only a small proportion of freshly-laid eggs contains living organisms, 1 Contribution No. 276, Department of Bacteriology, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan, Kansas.
and that in these, the number of bacteria is relatively low (Tanner, 1944). Furthermore, it has been observed repeatedly that eggs held or stored under a variety of environmental conditions exhibit extremely wide individual variation in the rate at which deterioration in quality takes place. This is true even when the environmental conditions would seem to be almost ideal for microbial growth (Lorenz et al., 1952). These facts would indicate marked variability in one or more of the factors influencing the entrance into and subsequent development of egg-spoilage bacteria in different eggs. A number of explanations have been offered for these differences, but none has been supported by adequate experimental proof. An experimental project was initiated
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Almquist, H. J., 1951. Personal correspondence. Almquist, H. J., and C. R. Grau, 1944. The amino acid requirements of the chick. J. Nutrition 28: 325-331. Draper, C. I., 1951. Personal correspondence. Gill, V., and R. H. Phillips, 1951. Personal communication. Grau, C. R., 1951. Personal correspondence. Grau, C. R., and H. J. Almquist, 1945. Deformities
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