Effects of different levels of Betafin in daiets on performance of native turkeys of East Azarbijan.

In order to investigate the effect of different levels of Betafin in the diet on the native turkeys performance of East Azerbaijan, a test was conducted at the Turkey Research Station. The experimental design includes 4 treatments (Betafin levels of 0%, 0/05%, 0/10%& 0/15%) and 5 replicates (10 pieces) with 200 day old poults were randomly performed in a period of about 28 weeks. Firstly, one day turkeys in a random selection were divided into the cages that were already fixed. In addition, water and food with Betafin levels mentioned above were freely available for them. After that, food intake and its weight were measured weekly. Meanwhile, during the experiment, food conversion ratio and mortality percentage were calculated, Secondly, from each replication, a male and a female turkey selected which was closer to the average weight and were slaughtered to measure carcass characteristics. Furthermore, the percentage of breast meat, thighs, viscera, abdominal fat, and carcass weight with empty stomach were calculated. Finally, the obtained data in the form of statistical design randomly were analyzed by using of SAS software. The results of research showed that by replacing Betafin instead of Methionine was shown no significant difference in the amount of feed intakes, weight gain, and food conversion within different treatments with a control group (P0.05). But the treatment with 10% Betafin in diet had a higher percentage of breast meat than the control group (P0.05). Also, the use of 15% Betafin was significantly decreased abdominal fat than the control group (P0.05). Replacement of methionine with Betafin had no effect on the liver, heart and other parts of visceral, but, it improved production at low levels. Meanwhile, this substitution was reduced feed costs per Kg of live weight. Key words: Native turkey, Betafin, diet, yield traits, Carcass characteristics : Abstract