PSII-21 - Feed intake and growth of young turkeys in the brood when supplemented with Viribus Essentials, a blend of botanical extracts and natural flavors

Abstract: The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of adding Viribus Essentials (VB) on top of standard commercial brood diets on the performance and survivability of young turkeys in a large-scale commercial research facility. A total of 1,360 hybrid turkey toms were randomly assigned to 2 dietary treatments in a completely randomized design for a 42-day trial. There were 85 turkeys per pen and 8 replicate pens per treatment. The 2 dietary treatments were 1) CONTROL a standard set of commercial turkey brood rations (Starter, Grower), and 2) CONTROL + 1,362 grams per ton of VB in Starter and Grower. Body weight and feed disappearance were recorded by pen for d 0 to 42 to calculate average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and feed conversion ratio. The Grubb’s test was used to check data for outliers with P < 0.05 as the level of significance for eliminating a replicate; no replicates were removed. Data were used to calculate all parameters and were analyzed using the GLM procedure in Minitab with Fisher’s t-test determining differences between treatments. Results from this trial are shown in Table 1. VB improved feed intake by 4.6% (P < 0.05), which resulted in improved ADG by 3.8% (P < 0.01), with no change in FCR or Mortality adjusted FCR. Survivability was numerically increased by 1.1% (P = 0.367). Overall, the supplementation of VB increases the weight of the turkey toms at the end of the brood by 4.7% (P < 0.01) which is an important indicator for the lifetime performance of turkeys.