Utilization of Dietary Urea by Chicks

概要

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The effect of graded levels of dietary urea were studied on chicks given a basal diet containing adequate amounts of all the essential but none of the non-essential amino acids. With the increase of dietary urea, body weight gain curvilinearly increased and the chicks fed 2.06% or more dietary urea grew significantly better than the chicks fed the basal diet alone. Feed intake and feed efficiency followed the similar pattern as the growth rate. With the increase of dietary urea level, nitrogen retention ((mg N intake-mg N excreted)⁄g feed intake) increased, but nitrogen utilization ((mg N intake-mg N excreted)⁄mg N intake) was reduced. Blood ammonia concentrations were similar irrespective of dietary urea levels. Plasma uric acid concentrations increased, but not significantly, with increasing amounts of dietary urea. Total N and ammonia N in the gut contents were not markedly affected by the dietary urea supplements, but total N and, to some extent, ammonia N were higher in the lower gut contents. With the increment of dietary urea, urea N in the upper gut increased linearly, while in the lower gut did curvilinearly. It was considered that dietary supplements of urea are beneficial for chicks under conditions where dietary non-essential amio acids are limiting.
日本家禽学会の論文