H. C. Saxena

Pancreatic Hypertrophy and Chick Growth Inhibition by Soybean Fractions Devoid of Trypsin Inhibitor.

Summary Fractionation studies on raw soybean meal have shown that the major chick growth inhibiting factor resides in the water insoluble residue. This fraction was devoid of anti-trypsin activity. Other fractions which contained high anti-trypsin activity were found to have an innocuous effect on growth of chicks. In all cases, where growth depression occurred, the pancreas was markedly hypertrophied.

Histo-physiological studies on chick pancreas as influenced by feeding raw soybean meal.

Summary Pancreatic hypertrophy in chicks fed raw soybean meal is caused by an accumulation of zymogen material in the acinar cells. Failure of the pancreas to respond in the expected way to pilocarpine injection suggests that the raw soybean meal interferes in some way with the basic mehanism by which zymogen is released from the pancreatic cells. It therefore seems unlikely that the growth depression in chicks fed raw soybean could be due to excessive fecal loss of critical amino acids contained in pancreatic enzymes.

PANCREATIC ENZYME LEVELS IN CHICKS FED UNHEATED SOYBEAN MEAL.

Summary An unheated, water insoluble fraction of soybean meal, while adding only .024% trypsin inhibitor to the diet, causes pancreatic hypertrophy in the chick. The hypertrophic pancreas has a higher trypsin specific activity than controls. Amylase specific activity was lower after feeding raw soybean meal but there was no difference after feeding the water insoluble fraction. These observations suggest that a heat-labile component other than trypsin inhibitor may be responsible for pancreatic hypertrophy and associated changes in enzyme levels in animals fed raw soybean meal.

Effect of dietary penicillin on the efficiency of protein utilization by chicks.

Abstract 1. 1. Penicillin gave a significant and consistent growth response at all levels of protein. 2. 2. Penicillin increased the efficiency of feed utilization at all levels of protein. 3. 3. The nitrogen retention in chicks fed low levels of protein tended to be slightly increased by the addition of penicillin to the diet; however, this increase was not of sufficient magnitude to be statistically significant.