Calcium and phytic acid in chick nutrition
1989
Farkvam, D.O. | Nelson, T.S. | Kirby, L.K. | Johnson, Z.B. | Stamps, A.T.
Three trials of 21 days duration each were conducted to study the amount of calcium bound to natural phytate in chick diets. In all trials broiler chicks were fed diets differing in phytate content. One diet (Diet A) was composed primarily of corn and soybean meal, and the other diet (Diet B) contained, in addition, egg white (Trial 1) or canola meal and rice bran (Trial 2 and 3). Each diet was supplemented with graded levels of calcium. Each treatment was replicated four times with eight chicks per pen. Percentage of bone ash was used as the criterion of response to calcium utilization. In all trials, more calcium was required to produce a given level of bone ash when the phytate content of the diet was increased. The calcium:phytic acid molar ratios increased in each trial with increasing levels of calcium. The ratios obtained as the calcium level approached the chick's requirement were 3.45:1, 5.85:1 and 4.41:1 for Trials 1, 2 and 3, respectively. These data indicate that increasing the natural phytate content of the diet increases the amount of calcium needed to produce a given level of bone ash in growing broiler chicks.
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