Fructose and its effect on turkey plasma uric acid levels and productive performance

Division of Animal & Veterinary Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6108, USA.

Previous studies have shown that addition of fructose to the diet of broilers raises plasma uric acid (PUA) concentration and improves productive performance. The purpose of this experiment was to establish the effect of feeding fructose on turkey PUA concentration and productive performance. Turkey poults (n = 64) were weighed and randomly assigned to diets containing 0 (control), 5, 10, and 15% fructose with four replicates of four poults each per treatment. All diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. Feed and water were offered ad libitum for 14 wk. Body weights were measured biweekly throughout the study, and blood samples were drawn from wk 8 to 10 for determination of PUA concentration, leukocyte oxidative activity (LOA), and differential leukocyte counts. Relative liver size (g/kg BW) was also determined. The heaviest body weights were recorded from turkeys fed 10% fructose diet (P < 0.05). Supplemental fructose had no effect on the feed to gain ratio, relative liver size, or PUA concentrations. LOA increased in poults fed the 15% fructose diet. Turkeys fed 10 and 15% fructose diets had higher monocyte and lower polymorphonuclear lymphocyte counts (P < 0.05) compared to those fed control and 5% fructose diets. Feeding fructose to turkeys at 10% of the diet improved productive performance. However, dietary fructose had no effect on PUA or, consequently, LOA.

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