Increased arginine, lysine, and methionine levels can improve the performance, gut integrity and immune status of turkeys but the effect is interactive and depends on challenge conditions

Table 1 Body weight (BW) and feed intake (Fint) of turkeys calculated for pre-, during-, and post-challenge periods

Parameter		N	BW day 0, g	BW day 25, kg	BW day 28, kg	Fint days 0–25, kg	Fint days 25–28, kg	Fint days 0–28, kg
Diet¹
Low ArgLysMet		24	60.11	1.148^b	1.337^b	1.708	0.379	2.087
High ArgLysMet		24	60.1	1.207^a	1.388^a	1.757	0.423	2.18
Challenge²
No		16	60.33	1.165	1.383	1.742	0.408	2.149
C. perfringens		16	59.83	1.178	1.349	1.702	0.391	2.093
LPS		16	60.15	1.19	1.354	1.755	0.404	2.159
Treatments
Low ArgLysMet	No	8	60.42	1.154	1.355	1.71	0.372	2.082
Low ArgLysMet	C. perfringens	8	60	1.138	1.332	1.691	0.38	2.071
Low ArgLysMet	LPS	8	59.91	1.153	1.322	1.724	0.386	2.11
High ArgLysMet	No	8	60.23	1.175	1.411	1.773	0.444	2.217
High ArgLysMet	C. perfringens	8	59.67	1.218	1.365	1.713	0.403	2.115
High ArgLysMet	LPS	8	60.39	1.228	1.386	1.786	0.422	2.208
SEM			0.112	0.01	0.011	0.018	0.011	0.026
P-value
Diet			0.956	0.002	0.024	0.197	0.065	0.081
Challenge			0.202	0.52	0.387	0.493	0.829	0.54
Diet × Challenge			0.293	0.341	0.829	0.878	0.661	0.772

¹Low ArgLysMet, diets with low arginine, lysine and methionine levels; High ArgLysMet, diets with high arginine, lysine and methionine levels.
²At 25, 26, and 27 days of age, birds were challenged either with C. perfringens type A strain 56 (C. perfringens) or lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli (LPS), or served as a placebo group with no challenge (No). ^a,bMeans within a row with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05).

ISSN: 1297-9716