Performance and Some Carcass Traits of Turkey Fed on Diets Containing Different Protein and Lysine Levels

The present study was designed to determine the effects of different dietary protein and lysine levels on the growth performance and some carcass traits of Bronze turkeys reared in intensive conditions. A total of 180 mixed sex one-day old Bronze turkeys were equally divided into four dietary treatments (three replications per treatment) from 0 to 16 week of age. The experimental diets were formulated to meet both crude protein and lysine levels of 100 (control), 110, 90 and 80 % of NRC (1994) recommendations. Diets were changed at 4-week intervals corresponding NRC (1994) nutrient recommendations and were fed from 0 to 4, 4 to 8, 8 to 12 and 12 to 16week of age. Other nutrients of experimental diets differing in both protein and lysine were some the levels in general. Although BW of male and mixed sex turkeys at the 16 week of age was not influenced by dietary treatments, turkey fed 80% NRC protein and lysine levels had BW significantly lower than that of turkeys receiving 100 and 110% of NRC recommended dietary treatments on cumulative feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, and dressing percentage of turkeys. Decreasing dietary crude protein and lysine levels to 80% of NRC recommendation resulted in percentage of edible internal organs lower (P<0,05) than that of turkeys fed diets containing 100 and 110% of NRC protein and lysine. This experiments demonstrates that dietary both protein and lysine can be decreased to approximately 90% of NRC recommendation in Bronze turkeys.Key words: Bronze turkey, protein, lysine, performance, carcass.