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Feeding Turkeys a Highly Digestible Supplement During Preslaughter Feed Withdrawal

B. M. Rathgeber^*,1, J. L. MacIsaac and M. E. MacKenzie

^* Crops and Livestock Research Centre, Charlottetown Prince Edward Island, Canada, C1A 7M8; Atlantic Poultry Research Institute, Truro, Nova Scotia, B2N 5E3; and Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2P5

¹ Corresponding author: rathgeberb{at}agr.gc.ca

Standard commercial practice is to deny poultry access to feed 8 to 12 h prior to slaughter. Occasionally a flock of turkeys is marketed at several ages, and starvation can occur for birds that are not shipped. For this project multiple marketed female turkeys were fed a special diet (nutritive supplement) during the preslaughter feed withdrawal period to reduce live weight loss, bird stress, and grazing on manure. Three trials were conducted at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College using 60 female turkey poults for each of 8 pens for each trial. The birds were separated into 8 pens with 20 birds from half of the pens shipped at 63 d of age and all remaining birds shipped 1 wk later. Prior to shipping, feed was withdrawn, with half the pens receiving the supplement. The pens that had received supplement at 63 d of age received it again a week later along with half the pens not previously marketed. The supplement was only consumed in a significant quantity when it was new to the birds (~10 g/kg of bird). The carcass yield, based on the live weight before the conventional feed withdrawal period, was improved for birds that consumed the supplement. Microbiological profiles of the crops revealed that although the total number aerobic bacteria was not affected, birds ingesting the supplement had fewer Escherichia coli and coliforms present. Breast meat samples collected at 15 min postmortem and 24 h postmortem and measured for pH were not found to be different between the treatments. Because birds would only consume the supplement on the first exposure, this supplement is only effective for reducing live weight loss and microbial load of the crop in an all-in all-out management situation.

Key Words: turkey • feed withdrawal • yield • crop bacteria • processing