Influence of Beans, Peas and Lentils as Dietary Ingredients on the Growth Response of Chicks to Antibiotic and Methionine Supplementation of the Diet1,2

Influence of Beans, Peas and Lentils as Dietary Ingredients on the Growth Response of Chicks to Antibiotic and Methionine Supplementation of the Diet1'2 W . D . GOATCHER3 AND J . M c G l N N I S Department of Animal Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman (Received for publication July 5, 1971)

POULTRY SCIENCE 51: 440-443,

ROWTH of chicks fed diets containing high levels (53.5%) of either autoclaved or raw dry beans was increased by about 50 and 200%, respectively, by dietary supplements of antibiotics (Goatcher and McGinnis, 1972). MacAuliffe and McGinnis (1971) have shown that some antibiotic supplements to diets containing rye as the cereal grain produced a similar large and unexpected growth response. These studies show that antibiotic induced growth responses can be profoundly influenced by the nature of the dietary components. This paper reports studies designed to show the effect of type and level of antibiotic on growth of chicks fed diets containing high levels of dry field beans (Phseolus vulgaris), lentils (Lens esculenta) or dry field peas (Pisum sativum).

G

PROCEDURE

Experiment 1. The Red Mexican type of 1 Scientific Paper No. 3717, College of Agriculture, Washington State University, Pullman, Project 1S33. 2 This work was partially supported under USDA Cooperative Agreement 12-14-100-10011 (34). 3 Present address: Food and Drug Administration, Washington, D.C.

1972

dry beans (variety Big Bend) used in this experiment was grown in the irrigated region of Central Washington. The whole beans were spread in metal trays at a depth of approximately 3 cm. and autoclaved in a steam atmosphere at a temperature of 120° C. for 20 minutes. They were then air-dried and ground in a hammer mill. The Alaska variety of dry peas and Fairfield variety of lentils were ground and mixed in the diets without any cooking treatment. Composition of the basal diets containing beans, peas or lentils, as well as the control diets containing other types of protein concentrates, is given in Table 1. The levels of beans, peas and lentils were kept constant even though they contained different amounts of protein because of the possibility that the growth response of chicks to an antibiotic supplement might be influenced by some component in these ingredients apart from protein. Triplicate lots of 10 2-day-old commercial type broiler chicks were fed each experimental diet. They were randomly distributed into experimental groups. The chicks were kept in batteries with raised wire floors, float-controlled waterers and

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ABSTRACT Results of two experiments conducted with chicks showed that growth and other parameters were markedly depressed by feeding a basal diet containing approximately 53% of steam autoclaved dry beans and that this depression was counteracted to a considerable degree by addition of antibiotic supplements to the diet. The use of a similar level of either dry field peas or lentils in the chick diet also increased the magnitude of growth response to an antibiotic supplement. These improvements in growth with antibiotic supplements added to diets containing beans, peas or lentils were in marked contrast to an insignificant response with an antibiotic addition to a more conventional type of control diet. The addition of an antibiotic supplement to the diet containing beans significantly improved feed efficiency and total protein efficiency, but only methionine supplementation to the diets containing peas or lentils significantly improved these values. The addition of penicillin plus methionine did not further improve feed efficiency or total protein efficiency.

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LEGUMES, ANTIBIOTIC AND METHIONINE of experimental diets

TABLE \..~-Con

Diet number Ingredient

2 3 (Soybean (Bean, pea meal control) or lentil)

%

%

%

10.1

10.1

10.1

3.4 27.5

3.4 27.5

3.4 27.5

11.56

24.00

4.62

— — — 28.88

4.62 2.3 29.28 4.45 1.0 .5 .3 .325 .05

— —

17.4

2.44 2.0 1.0 .3 .325 .05

— —

17.3

— — — — — — 1.9 .925 .3 .325 .05 2.0 53.5 !8.0, 20.6, 21.6, 17.1*

• Provided per kg. of diet: Vit. A, 3,300 I.U.; Vit. Da, 300 I.C.U.; Vit. K, 0.66 mg.; Vit. E, 1.1 I.U.; thiamin, 2.4 mg.; riboflavin, 4.3 mg.; pantothenate, 13.7 mg.; niacin, 32.4 mg.; pyridoxine, 4.4 mg.; folacin, 1.4. mg.; biotin, 0.11 mg.; choline, 1,560 mg.; B12, 0.011 mg.: and ethoxyquin, 125 mg. 2 Provided per kg. of diet: Mn, 50 mg.; Fe, 50 mg.; Cu, 5 mg.; Zn, 50 mg.; I, 1.5 mg.; and Co, 5 mg. 3 Values for red beans, lentils, peas, and white beans, respectively.

overhead thermostatically controlled electric heaters. They were weighed after a two week feeding period and feed consumption was also determined at this time. The diets containing dry beans were supplemented with graded levels of Procaine penicillin G as indicated in Table 2. In this series the bean component of the diet contributed approximately 67% of the total dietary protein. Diet 1, which contained supplementary protein from materials such as soybean meal, meat meal and fish meal was also fed with and without antibiotic supplementation. The experimental diets containing either peas or lentils were supplemented with penicillin and/or methionine. Experiment 2. Beans of the variety, California Small White, were used to supply approximately 66% of the dietary protein in the experimental rations. They were ground in a small hammer mill before auto-

TABLE 2.—Effect of dried beans, peas, or lentils on growth and feed efficiency of chicks and response to penicillin and/or methionine (Experiment 1)

Supplement Diet 1: None 1,100 p.p.m. penicillin3 Diet 3 (bean): None 2.5 p.p.m. penicillin 25 p.p.m. penicillin 50 p.p.m. penicillin 100 p.p.m. penicillin 1,100 p.p.m. penicillin Diet 3 (lentils): None 50 p.p.m. penicillin 0.35% DL-methionine 50 p.p.m. penicillin + 0.35% DL-methionine Diet 3 (peas): None 50 p.p.m. penicillin 0.35% DL-methionine 50 p.p.m. penicillin + 0.35% DL-methionine 1

Av. gain, g. Feed (1-2 wks.) gain

TPE1

159.9a2 171.4a

1.85a 1.77a

82.1c 103.7b 122.2b 119.4b 122.3b 119.7b

2.70c 2.06c 2.56b 2.17b 2.42b 2.30b 2.37b 2.35b 2.42b 2.31b 2.41b 2.30b

44.4a 54.5a 111.7b

2.95a 2.78a 1.84b

1.66a 1.77a 2.59b

131.9c

1.71b

2.80b

51.1a 68.6a 144.5b

2.52a 2.36a 1.75b

1.85a 1.97a 2.61b

169.1c

1.66b

2.75b

3.10a 3.26a

Total protein efficiency—gms. gain/gms. protein consumed. 2 Means within each column having a different letter are significantly different (P<0.05) by t-test. 3 Procaine penicillin G.

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Corn, ground, yellow Corn gluten meal ( 4 1 % protein) Wheat, ground Soybean meal (50% protein) Meat and bone meal (50% protein) Fish meal, herrmg (70% protein) Alfalfa meal, dehy. (20% protein) Glucose monohydrate Cellulose Dicalcium phosphate Calcium carbonate Salt, iodized Vitamin mix 1 Trace mineral mix 2 Fat Beans, peas or lentils Protein (NX6.25) %

1 (mixed protein)

claving. The autoclaving treatment consisted of spreading the beans in stainless steel trays approximately 1^ cm. deep and cooking in a steam atmosphere at 120°C. for 10 minutes. They were then air-dried and mixed in Basal Diet 3, the composition of which is given in Table 1. The different antibiotics, methionine or a sulfa drug mixture were added to this basal diet as outlined in Table 3. The control diets shown in Table 1 were fed in this experiment. Three groups of 10 commercial type broiler chicks were fed each of the experimental diets for a period of three weeks. The chicks were distributed into groups at random and the groups were then randomly assigned to treatments. They were kept in battery brooders as described in Experiment 1 and provided feed and water ad li-

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W . D . GOATCHER AND J .

RESULTS

TABLE 3.—Performance characteristics of chicks fed and diets containing California white beans supplemented with various antibiotics Supplement

Av. gain, g. Feed (1-3 wks.) gain

Diet I: None Diet 2: 0.35% DL-methionine Dient 3 (beans): None 0.35% DL-methionine 1,100 p.p.m. penicillin 1,100 p.p.m. terramycin-RCl Ilotycin, 1,100 p.p.m. 1,100 p.p.m. neomycin-SO* 1,100 p.p.m. oleandomycin 1,100 p.p.m. streptomycin-SO< 3 1,100 p.p.m. sulfa drug mixture

316.5a*

TPE>

1.88ab 3.06b

313.6ab 1.74a

3.29a

167.4e 209.3d 293.6ab 289.2ab 284.6ab 272.3bc 269.4bc 244.7c 171.le

2.30e 2.45e 2.85cd 2.90bc 2.84cd 2.77cd 2.75cd 2.68d 2.38e

2.54e 2.34de 2.05c 2.02bc 2.06c 2.11c 2.13c 2.18cd 2.46e

1 Total protein efficiency. (Unit of gain per unit of crude protein consumed). 2 Means within each column having different letters are significantly different (P<0.05) by t-test. 1 Consisted of 26.6% of Na sulfamethazine, 37.8% Na sulfathiazole, 5.6% Na sulfamerazine and 30.0% inert ingredients included in the diet at a level of 3.3 g. per kg.

Experiment 2. The results on body weight gain, F/G and T.P.E. for Experiment 2 are summarized in Table 3. The addition of a sulfa drug mixture to the basal diet containing beans did not significantly improve any of the parameters. On the other hand, addition of methionine to the basal diet containing beans significantly improved body weight gain. All of the antibiotic supplements used significantly improved growth, but some of them differed in their growth promoting activity. All of the antibiotic supplements used had a similar effect in improving F/G and T.P.E. Both of the control diets gave better F/G and T.P.E. values than any of the diets containing beans except the one supplemented with terramycin. DISCUSSION

The unusually large growth response obtained by adding different antibiotics to a basal diet containing a high level of dry field beans and the lower response given by some antibiotics suggests that beans have a depressing effect on growth, possibly by stimulating the growth of an adverse microflora in the intestinal tract. The inclusion of dry beans at the levels used also caused a type of diarrhea in the chicks and the type of feces voided was very different from those from chicks fed the control diets. The feces adhered to the wire floors in contrast to almost no adherence in the controls. Addition of antibiotic supplements had no influence on this characteristic. Results obtained by MacAuliffe and McGinnis (1971), in which the response to an antibiotic supplement was greatly enhanced by replacing the wheat component of a diet with rye, also support the contention that some feed ingredients greatly influence the chick growth response to an antibiotic supplement by influencing the intestinal microflora. Their findings showed that some anti-

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Experiment 1. The effects of experimental treatments on chick growth, feed/gain (F/G) and total protein efficiency (T.P.E.) are given in Table 2. These results show that the high level antibiotic supplementation did not significantly improve the growth of chicks fed Control Diet 1. In contrast, all levels of penicillin significantly improved the growth of chicks fed diet 3 containing beans in comparison with the unsupplemented basal bean diet. The addition of penicillin to diet 3 containing either lentils or peas failed to significantly improve growth of chicks, probably because of the severely limiting methionine deficiency. When methionine was added to this diet containing either peas or lentils a significant growth response was obtained and the addition of penicillin in combination with methionine further significantly improved growth. The data on F/G and T.P.E. paralleled the growth data for the diets containing beans, but a further improvement in either F/G or T.P.E. was not obtained by the addition of penicillin with methionine in comparison with methionine as the only supplement.

McGlNNIS

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LEGUMES, ANTIBIOTIC AND METHIONINE

may be involved in liberating a "bound" growth inhibitor present in the dry beans. REFERENCES Goatcher, W. D., and J. McGinnis, 1972. Effect of autoclaving beans, and amino acid and antibiotic supplementation upon performance of chicks fed one of four varieties of dry beans. Poultry Sci. Submitted for publication. Kakade, M. L., and R. J. Evans, 1964. Effect of methionine, vitamin B12 and antibiotic supplementation on protein nutritive value of navy beans. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 115: 890-893. Kakade, M. L., and R. J. Evans, 1966. Growth inhibition of rats fed raw navy beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). J. Nutrition, 90: 191-198. MacAuliffe, T., and J. McGinnis, 1971. Effect of antibiotic supplements to diets containing rye on chick growth. Poultry Sci. 50: 1130-1134.

Wire and Litter Management Systems for Broiler Breeders T. A. CARTER,1 G. O. BRESSLER AND R. F. GENTRY Poultry Science and Veterinary Science Departments, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (Received for publication July 5, 1971)

ABSTRACT Three wire pens, each with 250 female broiler breeders and 25 Cornish type males housed a 1 sq. ft. per bird, were compared with three litter floor pens each having 150 females and IS males at 3 sq. ft. per bird. Egg production and mortality were significantly higher in wire houses than in litter floor houses. Hatchability of fertile eggs were similar in both management systems during the 28 week test. Fertility was significantly different as it averaged 9.2% lower in wire floor houses. The fertility difference gradually increased from the second through the seventh four week periods and was believed to be related to an increasing problem of sore feet of the cockerels on the wire floor. Counts of air bacteria, air fungi and bacteria on the egg were all significantly higher in the litter floor houses than in the wire floor houses. The mean bacteria count per cubic foot of air was 2.2 times greater in the litter houses while there was 10 times more bacteria found on the shells of eggs from the litter floor houses. The relationship of these differences in microbe counts to chick contamination rates was not established. POULTRY SCIENCE 51: 443-448,

sloping wire floor management system .was first described by Bressler and Maw (1966). Mechanical feeders, pit clean-

A

* Authorized for publication on June 16, 1971 as journal series no. 4002 of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station. 'Present address: Campbell Soup Company, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701.

1972

ers, roll-away nests and controlled ventilation were integral parts of this system. The performance of Leghorn breeders housed on A and V-type sloping wire floors at 0.50 square foot of floor space per bird averaged 71 and 70 percent hen day egg production, 94 and 95 percent fertility and 92 and 92 percent hatchability, respectively, in an ex-

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biotics were without effect when added to a diet containing rye, whereas others were highly effective. It has been suggested by a number of investigators that beans contain heat stable growth inhibitors in addition to the inhibitors that are destroyed or inactivated by steam autoclaving. Kakade and Evans (1964, 1966) obtained results with rats showing that significant growth increases were obtained by the addition of antibiotic supplementation to diets containing dry beans. They attributed the improvement to two possibilities: (1) increased digestibility or absorption of nutrients by the antibiotics; and (2) inhibiting an enzyme which