Chemically preserved high-moisture corn in the turkey diet does not compromise performance and maintains the functional status of the gut

An experiment was conducted to investigate the potential inclusion of a wet corn grain preserved with organic acids in a turkey diet. A total of 357 one-day-old Hybrid Converter female turkeys were divided into three groups, each consisting of seven replicates of 17 birds. Throughout the 114-day feeding period, the birds received wheat-soybean meal diets supplemented with the following: heat-dried corn at the level of 150 g/kg diet (T1), a half substitution of heat-dried corn with organic acid-preserved wet corn (T2), or total substitution with organic acid-preserved corn (T3). The final body weight (BW) averaged 11.5 kg, while the feed conversion ratio (FCR) averaged 2.44 kg feed/kg body weight gain (BWG). Compared with the control diet, neither partial nor total inclusion of chemically preserved corn significantly affected turkey performance, carcass characteristics and associated traits or mortality rates. The digestibility coefficients of dry matter (0.668 ± 0.005), crude fiber (0.192 ± 0.011), ash (0.408 ± 0.011), and the apparent total tract nitrogen retention (0.453 ± 0.010) were similar among the groups, while crude fat digestibility was significantly lower in T3 than in the control (0.854 vs. 0.807 ± 0.006). The dietary T2 and T3 applications of chemically preserved corn were associated with significantly lowered relative weight (2.50 and 2.12 g/kg BW, respectively, vs. 3.31 g/kg BW in T1) and lowered pH (6.44 and 6.35, respectively, vs. 6.72 in T1) of the cecal digesta. The T3 treatment significantly increased cecal bacterial activity of α-galactosidase and decreased that of α-arabinofuranosidase (in both cases, vs. T1 and T2). The activity of bacterial β-galactosidase was significantly enhanced in the T2 treatment vs. control, while cecal β-xylosidase activity was decreased in both the T2 and T3 groups vs. T1. Compared with the T1 group, concentrations of total cecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and pool of SCFAs were significantly decreased in T2 and T3 treatments. Feeding chemically preserved corn significantly increased the hemoglobin concentration (10.62 vs. 11.83–11.94 ± 0.23 g/dL), irrespective of the dosage. A significantly decreased peroxide blood concentration was observed following the T3 treatment vs. T1 and T2 treatments. Our findings indicated that organic acid-preserved wet corn at the level up to 150 g/kg diet can be used with no adverse effects on turkey growth performance, gut physiological status, and blood redox status. Therefore, treatment of high-moisture corn with organic acids represents a low-cost alternative to heat-dried corn grain.