Blood Meal as a Source of Protein in Turkey Starting Diets*

T 3 L 0 0 D meal was found to be a poor •*- * source of protein for supporting chick growth by Mussehl and Ackerson, (1931) and by Titus et al. (1936). Grau and Almquist (1944) showed that beef-blood meal fractionated into fibrin, serum and blood cell fractions supported chick growth and efficiency of feed utilization approximately equal to sardine meal with exception of blood cells. Blood cells furn-ishing 30 percent of the dietary protein reduced gain and feed per gain approxi-mately 50 percent. Squibb and Wyld (1950) reported lysine to be the principal limiting amino acid among protein con-centrates used for compounding poultry rations in Guatemala. Blood meal in-cluded in diets at the 2-4 percent level was found to be a good supplement to lysine-low sesame, conozo and cotton seed oil meal (Squibb and Braham, 1955). Slinger et al. (1955) presented information that shows blood meal to be equal to soybean oil meal with regards to chick growth when included in the diet at the 3 percent level. However, feed utilization was impaired by approximately 3.7 per-cent. The addition of lysine to the soya-blood protein diet improved gain and feed efficiency. Kratzer and Green (1957) using poults as assay animals showed blood meal when spray-dried yielded from 28 to 39 percent more lysine than when vat dried. * Published with the approval of the Director o