T. M. Ferguson

The effect of processing on the nutritional value of guar meal for broiler chicks

Synopsis Guar meal contains two factors which are detrimental to the growth rate and food conversion of chicks. One of the factors is the trypsin inhibitor which can be destroyed by cooking the raw guar meal for a period of 1 hr at a temperature of 110° C. with the injection of super‐heated steam for a period of 15 min. after the cooker attains a temperature of 110°C. The second deterimental factor in guar meal is the guar gum which causes a depression in growth and sticky droppings when the total level of the gum in the diet exceeds 1.8 per cent. The usage of heated guar meal in chick diets is apparently limited by the gum content of the meal. Pectinase, an enzyme preparation added to a chick ration which contained 15 per cent processed guar meal, produced an increase in the weight gain of chicks fed the ration over those fed 15 per cent processed guar meal. Hypertrophy of the pancreas resulted in the chicks fed 20 and 30 per cent processed guar meal and in all groups fed raw guar meal.

Relationship of vitamin E to embryonic development of avian eye.

Summary A cloudiness in the central portion of the lens was found in embryos from eggs laid by turkey hens fed an all-vegetable protein diet without added vit. E. Associated with the lens disorder was a hemorrhaged vitreous humor, a smaller embryo with edematous areas on the neck and feet, and a high embryonic mortality between the twenty-fourth and the twenty-eighth day of the incubation period. Supplementation of the all-vegetable protein diet with alpha-tocopheryl acetate was (effective in preventing the anomalous conditions described, while fish solubles, dried whey, or combinations of these substances had no effect.

Gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of lenticular triglycerides. I. Total triglycerides.

Triglycerides from bovine, rabbit and chicken lenses were characterized according to molecular weight by gas-liquid chromatography. The total triglycerides were separated from the other lipid classes by preparative thin layer chromatography with subsequent elution to obtain purified triglycerides. The molecular weight distribution of the triglycerides and their fatty acid composition were then determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Triglycerides of similar molecular weight were observed in all the species investigated, with C48, C50, C52 and C54 triglycerides comprising greater than 85% of the total. These triglycerides consisted primarily of various combinations of C16 : 0, C16 : 1, C18 : 0, C18 : 1 and C18 : 2 fatty acids. Several unidentified peaks were eluted shortly after the solvent front was noted.

Enzyme Activities in the Developing Muscle and Liver of Normal and Genetically Dystrophic Chick Embryos

Summary Activities of succinic dehydroge-nase, cytochrome c oxidase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) have been assayed in embryos and day-old chicks from a genetically dystrophic and normal strain of New Hampshire chicks. Results point out possible defects in the cytochrome c oxidase and succinic dehydrogenase systems as the site for the metabolic disturbance in the hereditary muscular dystrophy in chicks.