Folic acid response of chicks and poults fed diets containing ingredients from natural sources

Graduation date: 1965Eight experiments, two with poults and six with chicks, were\ud undertaken to determine the requirement for supplemental folic acid\ud as related to protein level and major protein source. Protein levels\ud for chicks and poults were 21, and 28 or 28 and 32%, respectively.\ud Major protein sources were soybean meal, fish meal, or a fish meal\ud and meat and bone meal combination. High methionine levels were\ud obtained in formulating the fish meal rations and high calcium and\ud phosphorus levels were present in the fish meal and meat and bone\ud meal diets. Exploratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the\ud effects of high levels of these ingredients with and without supplemental folic acid. Free folic acid content of the feed ingredients was\ud determined by microbiological assay and the amount of folic acid in\ud the high protein fish meal rations for both species was related to the\ud N. R. C. requirement values. The protein levels studied did not influence the need for supplemental folic acid for chicks or poults. Rations composed of herring\ud fish meal required folic acid supplementation. For chicks or poults\ud the amount of folic acid added to the high protein fish meal ration plus\ud the amount in the diet determined by microbiological assay of the ingredients agreed closely with the N. R. C. requirement values of\ud these species. The soybean meal rations calculated low in folic acid\ud in regard to the N. R. C. requirement for poults. Poults fed these\ud diets did not respond to added folic acid suggesting that a lower calculated free folic acid content when using soybean meal rations will\ud not necessarily result in deficient diets.\ud Perosis appeared to be more prevalent in chicks fed the high\ud calcium and phosphorus levels, although it could not be separated\ud statistically from perosis caused by a folic acid deficiency. No effect\ud could be found from the high methionine content of the fish meal rations. Anemia was not produced in chicks or poults fed these marginally deficient rations as judged by hemoglobin determinations or\ud microhematocrit readings. Values obtained by either of these testing\ud methods were quite variable.\ud Microbiological analysis of herring fish meal showed it to contain 0.26 mg. of folic acid/lb. This is much lower than the average\ud reported value of 1.1 mg./lb. although it is well within the reported\ud range of 0.12 to 2.37 mg./lb. The results of this investigation\ud indicate that the lower value would be more applicable when formulating practical rations from the standpoint of reducing mortality\ud and increasing body weights