The Effect of an Oral Dose of Vitamins and Antibiotic Given Day Old Chicks and Poults on Growth and Viability

The Effect of an Oral Dose of Vitamins and Antibiotic Given Day Old Chicks and Poults on Growth and Viability F. D. WHARTON, JR., J. C. FRITZ AND R. B. SCHOENE* Dawe's Laboratories, Incorporated, Chicago, Illinois (Received for publication January 30, 1958)

Fisher and Hudson (1956) reported instances of a high mortality syndrome in commercial hatchery chicks which could be prevented by treating orally with pantothenic acid or by increasing the pantothenic acid content of the maternal diet. Again, both maternal and chick diets were presumed to be adequate in all nutritive factors. Peterson (1952) reported that high mortality in poults was prevented by the administration of terramycin in the drinking water in the concentration of approximately 500 parts per million. In commercial practice a pre-starter containing somewhat higher than usual levels of vitamins, antibiotics and protein is widely used. Feeding such a diet for the first 10 to 14 days reputedly improves * Present address—Route

2, Trenton, Illinois.

growth and livability of poults and chicks, (Couch, 1956). At least part of the growth promoting effect of antibiotic is attributed to its ability to cushion the impact of introducing a comparatively sterile organism into a contaminated environment. In view of the foregoing, two postulations were made: one, that having antibiotic in the digestive tract and possibly in the blood stream of chicks and poults at the time they are introduced in the nonsterile environment of a brooder house should be more effective than merely providing trace amounts of antibiotic in the diet, with small quantities ingested during the critical first few days. Such an effect should be manifested in better growth and livability. Secondly, it was conjectured that vitamin deficiencies might exist in young chicks and retard growth without causing the high mortality observed in the published reports of this condition. Correcting these deficiencies should result in better growth and livability. Several experiments were designed to test these possibilities. EXPERIMENTAL

In the experiments to be reported, chicks and poults were given an oral dose of vitamins and procaine penicillin at the hatchery. The mixture was administered into the crop per os employing a syringe attached to a short piece of plastic tubing. All birds were maintained in electrically heated battery brooders. Although

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J

ENSEN and associates (1956) reported the occurrence of a high mortality syndrome in young chicks from presumtively well nourished dams. The cause was tentatively diagnosed as avian encephalomyelitis. Terramycin, fed at a level of 100 grams per ton of diet had no effect on mortality. However, subcutaneous injection of a vitamin mixture containing thiamine, pyridoxine, riboflavin, calcium pantothenate, folic acid, biotin and B12 greatly reduced mortality. Also, it was observed that the vitamin injection increased growth rate. The diets fed the breeders and their progeny were thought to be adequate in all nutrients.

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F. D. WHARTON, JR., J. C. FRITZ AND R. B. SCHOENE

dietary treatment varied, birds receiving the vitamin-antibiotic mixture and their non-treated controls were housed together, with one exception, in the same compartment of a battery. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

antibiotic on chick growth and mortality— experiment §1 %

Diet

Dosed

Av. wt. (g.) 4 wks.

mortality

Basal ibid. Basal-(-3 g. procaine penicillin/ton ibid.

yes no

297.7* (S3) 273.0* (51)

9.45 31.60

yes no

297.4 (51) 299.2 (48)

7.85 4.16

( ) Number of birds started. * t = 1.89 required 5% 1.985.

The experimental design and results of this experiment are shown in Table 2. In this experiment, treated birds were housed in the same battery, but not the same compartment as their untreated controls. It will be noted that extremely high mortality occurred in the untreated lot on the basal diet. This mortality was reduced when vitamins and antibiotics were given. Also, the improvement in average weight at 4 weeks of age in the treated group on the basal diet approaches significance at the 5% level. Treatment had no effect on gain or mortality when the diet contained penicillin. Average weights of all lots receiving penicillin either in the feed, as a single oral dose, or both were essentially identical and superior to the group that did not receive penicillin. It will be noted that the four week

TABLE 1.—Vitamins-antibiotic per individual bird

Vitamin A Vitamin D3 Riboflavin Pantothenic acid Niacin Choline chloride Vitamin B12

Procaine peinicillin Thiamine Pyridoxine Ascorbic acid Folic acid Vitamin E

Dose A

DoseB

1,000 U.S.P. units 200 I.C. units 2mg. 4 nig. 4mg. 60 mg. 6 meg. 20 mg.

5,000 U.S.P. units 1,000 I.C. units 1 mg. 3mg.* 10 mg.t

— — —• —. —

1 20 1 1 60 0.25

—

meg. mg. mg. mg. mg. meg.

—

* D-pantothenyl alcohol. t Nicotinamide. j Penicillin, aureomycin, terramycin, bacitracin or combinations.

Per lb. pre-starter 1,460 500 2.0 6.5 15 100

U.S.P. units I.C. units mg. mg. mg. mg.

—

176 mg.t

— — — —

2.5 I.U.

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A conventional chick starter diet fortified with levels of vitamins in excess of the National Research Council recommendations was used in the first test. Straight run Vantress Cross chicks were given an oral dose of one cc. of a vitaminantibiotic mixture to provide the levels shown in dose A, Table 1. The vitamins and quantities chosen to make-up the mixture were selected rather arbitrarily. Couch (1956) suggested added vitamin and antibiotic levels for both turkey pre-starters and starters. Employing these levels the additional vitamin and antibiotic intake resulting from feeding one pound of pre-starter was calculated. These are shown in the last column of Table 1 under the heading pre-starter and may be compared with the quantity received in a single oral dose. Approximately one pound of pre-starter is consumed per bird during the 10 to 14 days on a pre-starter regimen.

TABLE 2.—Effect of oral dose of vitamins and

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FORTIFICATION OF RATION OF DAY-OLD BIRDS TABLE 3.—Basal ration—Experiment 1 Ingredients Vitamin-mineral mix* Ground yellow corn Wheat middlings Soybean oil meal (44% protein) Corn gluten meal Meat scraps (50% protein) Fish meal (60% protein) Alfalfa meal (17% protein) Ground limestone Defluorinated phosphate Salt

% 0.50 54.25 10.00 20.00 2.50 2.50 5.00 2.50 1.50 1.00 .25 100.00

weights of all lots in this experiment were sub-optimal. A conventional broiler diet (Table 3), which in previous and subsequent studies has supported much better growth, was employed in this trial. Thus, it is unlikely that the diet was responsible for the poor growth. Gross observation of the birds revealed no recognizable disease; nevertheless, growth was poor and mortality high. There is at least a superficial resemblance between these observations and the observations of other workers previously referred to in this paper. In experiment 2, chicks were dosed at the hatchery with Zymadrops. 1 Procaine penicillin was added to this vitamin mixture to provide 20 milligrams in 0.6 cc. of the preparation. This constituted an individual dose. Thus, each chick received the quantity of vitamins and procaine penicillin shown as Dose B, Table 1. Zymadrops does not contain choline chloride. Folic acid, ascorbic acid and thiamine, not present in the first vitamin mixture, are included in this. Other differences are an increased level of vitamin A, 1

Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

TABLE 4.—Effect of oral dose of vitamins and antibiotics on chick growth and mortality— Experiment §2 Average weight 4 weeks (grams)

Diet

(B)asal B+U.G.F.* (A) B + U . G . F . (B) B+U.G.F. (C) B + U . G . F . (D) B+U.G.F. (E) Average

Dosed

Not dosed

304.0 355.5 341.8 314.4 353.7 346.1 335.9

319.1 355.4 346.5 312.7 340.2 317.3 331.8

* Unidentified growth factor source.

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* Provided per pound diet: vitamin A, 600 I.U.; vitamin D 3 , 750 I.C.U.; riboflavin 1 mg.; niacin, 5 mg.; pantothenic acid, 2 mg.; choline chloride, 200 mg.; vitamin B12, 3 meg.; BHT, 56.75 mg. and trace minerals.

D 3 and niacin and reduced levels of riboflavin, pantothenic acid and Bi2. Day old chicks from the same source and of the same breed as those used in the first trial were used in this experiment. Half of the birds in each of the six lots of 20 birds each were given the vitamin-antibiotic mixture. The basal corn-soya diet was adequately fortified but did not contain an antibiotic. Dietary treatment consisted of a basal group, and five groups receiving the basal plus sources of unidentified factors. The results of this experiment are shown in Table 4. There was no mortality among the 120 birds in the test, nor was there any effect from the vitamin-antibiotic treatment. Since the high mortality observed in the first test is rarely experienced in our laboratory and, because no effect was obtained in the absence of mortality, no additional studies with chicks were conducted. Although we have not seen reports suggesting that a high mortality syndrome, preventable by vitamins, occurs in poults, it was thought that extension of these observations to turkeys would be of interest. Broad Breasted Bronze poults were used in all experiments. As with the chicks, poults were treated at the hatchery and placed on feed about two hours later.

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F. D. WHARTON, JR., J. C. FRITZ AND R. B. SCHOENE

Each treated poult received 1 cc. of the vitamin-antibiotic mixture used in the first chick experiment (Dose A, Table 1). Ninety-six poults on 4 dietary regimens were used in the first experiment. Half of the birds on each dietary treatment were given the vitamin-antibiotic mixture. The experimental design and results of this test (Experiment 3) are shown in Table 5. The data were analyzed by analysis of variance with t-test used to determine the significance of response to treatment by poults on the same diet. When the diet contained penicillin and 3-nitro, 4 hydroxyphenylarsonic acid,2 treatment with vitamins and antibiotics significantly retarded growth. Oral dosing with vitamins and penicillin improved growth when the diet contained additional niacin but no pencillin and 3-nitro. Treatment did not influence growth when the diet contained penicillin, 3-nitro and added niacin. Of possible significance is the fact that only two of the treated birds died, whereas six out of the 48 non-dosed poults died. Experiment 4 was was a replica of Experiment 3 with the results shown in Table 5. 2

Hereafter referred to as 3-nitro

There was essentially no difference in mortality between treated and untreated groups. An analysis of variance of these data show a significant effect of diet. The effect of vitamin-pencillin dose and interaction between this treatment and diet were not significant. When poults on each diet were compared, only the treated birds receiving penicillin, 3-nitro and additional niacin grew at a rate significantly different from their control. In neither of the two poult tests was there consistent evidence that the vitaminantibiotic treatment improved growth. It was postulated that the comparatively empty condition of the digestive tract of the newly hatched poult might result in such rapid elimination of the vitaminantibiotic mixture that little absorption took place. It was thought that combining the vitamin-antibiotic mixture with a methyl cellulose solution might provide sufficient bulk to keep the material in the digestive tract long enough to be absorbed. A preliminary study employing chicks showed one cc. of a mixture of equal parts of methyl cellulose solution3 and Zymadrops could be given without harmful effects. Ellingson and Massengale (1952) reported that daily ingestion of methyl cellulose did not interfere with the utilization of dietary thiamine or vitamin A in normal or depleted rats. On the basis of this report, it was assumed that methyl cellulose would not render the vitamins or penicillin unavailable. Accordingly, in Experiment 5, turkey poults were given 1 cc. of a mixture containing 0.6 cc. of Zymadrops and 0.4 cc. of methyl cellulose solution, plus procaine penicillin to provide 20 milligrams per cc. of the mixture (Dose B Table 1). Ten different dietary treatments were 3 Liquid cologel, Eli Lily & Co., Indianapolis, Indiana.

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A conventional turkey starter containing corn, soybean oil meal, meat scraps, fish meal, alfalfa meal, minerals, and vitamins was employed. Levels of vitamins used exceeded the National Research Council recommendations in each instance. The starter contained a calculated 18.45 milligrams of niacin per pound. The National Research Council does not recommend a niacin level for turkeys. However, some authorities feel 18 milligrams of niacin per pound of feed is borderline or low. For this reason, two of the dietary treatments included additional niacin to provide a total of 28.45 milligrams per pound of feed.

FORTIFICATION OF R A T I O N OF D A Y - O L D B I R D S

TABLE 5.—Effect

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of oral dose of vitamins and antibiotic on poult growth and mortality Experiment #3 Av. weight (g) 4 weeks

Experiment #4 Av. weight (g) 4 weeks

Diet Dosed (B)asal B + 2 0 g. procaine penicillin+45 g. 3-nitro per ton B + 2 0 grams niacin per ton B-j-Procaine penicillin+3-nitro +niacin

Not dosed

Dosed

Not dosed

524.8(12)*

560.2(9)

496.4(11)

528.1(11)

583.6(10) 604.0J(12)

661. Of (11) 563.0(12)

589.9(12) 584.3(10)

597.4(12) 552.8(12)

580.8(12)

607.5(10)

584.3§(11)

522.1(10)

employed in the experiment. Each lot contained 10 birds, 5 of which were given the methyl cellulose-vitamin-penicillin mixture. The results of this test are shown in Table 6. With one exception, the control birds were heavier in each comparison. Lots 2 through 8 were fed varying levels of fungal amylase in a diet containing barley as the carbohydrate source. There was no barley in the diets of lots 1, 9 and 10. Since lots 2 through 8 were on modifications of the same basal diet it was thought that restricting statistical evaluation to this portion of the experiment would be the most valid application. Analysis by t-test showed the differences in 4 week weights of dosed and non-dosed birds, lots 2 through 8, were not significant (10% < P <20%). Standard deviation was determined for the treated and control lots in Experiments 3, 4 and 5. There was no significant difference in variability in the treated and control group in Experiments 3 and 4. In Experiment 5, in which methyl cellulose was used, treated poults had significantly greater variability ( 2 % < P < 5 % ) . SUMMARY

In two experiments, chicks were given an oral dose of vitamins and penicillin at

the hatchery. In the first experiment, high mortality occurred in the untreated group. Vitamin-antibiotic treatment, or the addition of antibiotic to the ration greatly reduced mortality and the improvement in weight gains approached significance. In the second experiment in which livability of all chicks was excellent, this treatment had no effect on gains. Turkeys given similar treatment showed no consistent benefit. Mortality was negligible in most instances. When the vitamins were combined with a methyl cellulose solution, growth appeared to be depressed although statistical analysis showed this was not significant. Variability within groups treated with vitamins and methyl cellulose was greater than in control birds. TABLE 6.—Effect of methyl cellulose-vilaminantibiotic on poult growth Average weight 4 weeks (grams) Lot No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Treated

Not treated

464.2 763.4 652.6 599.4 717.4 729.8 692.4 711.8 547.2 608.2

512.8 748.6 663.6 760.4 722.0 760.2 719.4 736.2 599.4 680.2

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* ( ) = survivors out of 12 poults started. fl%S%. § 1%
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F. D. WHARTON, JR., J. C. FRITZ AND R. B. SCHOENE

REFERENCES Couch, J. R., 1956. Turkey nutrition. Feed Age, 6: 30-35. Ellingson, R. C , and O. N . Massengale, 1952. Effect of methyl-cellulose on growth response of rats to low vitamin intakes. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 79: 92-94. Fisher, H., and C. B. Hudson, 1956. Chick viability

and pantothenic acid deficiency in the breeding diet—a case report. Poultry Sci. 35: 487-488. Jensen, L. S., J. Alfred, R. Fry and J. McGinnis, 1956. Effect of vitamin injections on survival of chicks with a high mortality syndrome. Fed. Proc. 15: 558. Peterson, E. H., 1952. Terramycin reduces early poult mortality. Poultry Sci. 31: 898-899.

WALTER A. BECKER AND GORDON E. BEARSE State College of Washington, Western Washington Experiment Station, Puyallup (Received for publication January 31, 1958)

T

HE hatchability of turkey and chicken eggs usually increases when the eggs are subjected to certain pre-incubation warming treatments. Kosin (1956) reviewed the relevant literature and also obtained evidence in a series of experiments with chicken and turkey eggs indicating that warming procedures generally improved the hatchability of fertile eggs. He found that a single five hour warming period at 99 3/4°F. was effective with turkey eggs. Subsequently Kosin (1957) observed that placing eggs in a 72-74°F. environment overnight also improved the hatchability of turkey eggs. Because these two treatments were not tested with chicken eggs, it seemed desirable to observe the effect of these warming treatments upon the hatchability of chicken eggs. METHODS

Four trials were conducted as follows: 1. For the first trial eggs were saved for a 22-day period from a flock mating of White Rock 9 9 X Synthetic Dominant 1 Scientific Paper No. 1688, Washington Agricultural Experiment Stations, Pullman, Project No. 803.

White cf cf and the reciprocal cross. The eggs were placed directly into an egg cooler (50°F., 85% relative humidity) after being collected from the nests three times daily. The following morning the eggs were distributed at random into two treatments as follows: a. The eggs remained in the cooler until incubation. b. The eggs were put in the incubator for five hours at 100°F. and were then taken out and placed on flats in the cooler until incubation. 2. In the second trial, eggs from the same crosses as in trial 1 above were saved for 18 days. The eggs were taken from the laying houses three times daily and brought immediately into the incubator room (70-73°F., 45% R.H.). At 4:30 p.m. each day the eggs were distributed at random into the following three treatments: a. Egg cooler (50°F., 85% R.H.) until setting. b. Overnight in the incubator room (70-73°F., 45% R.H.) and then placed in the egg cooler (50°F., 85% R.H.) at 8 a.m. the next morning. c. Placed in the incubator for one hour at 100°F, followed by storing imme-

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Pre-Incubation Warming and Hatchability of Chicken Eggs 1