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 2 Body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of turkeys calculated for pre-, during-, and post-challenge periods

Parameter		N	BWG days 0–25, kg	BWG days 25–28, kg	BWG days 0–28, kg	FCR days 0–25, kg/kg	FCR days 25–28, kg/kg	FCR days 25–28, kg/kg
Diet¹
Low ArgLysMet		24	1.090^b	0.205	1.639^b	1.573	2.004	1.577
High ArgLysMet		24	1.150^a	0.207	1.732^a	1.53	2.242	1.567
Challenge²
No		16	1.106	0.23	1.711	1.58	2	1.578
C. perfringens		16	1.118	0.213	1.662	1.527	2.039	1.518
LPS		16	1.136	0.176	1.684	1.548	2.33	1.62
Treatments
Low ArgLysMet	No	8	1.094	0.213	1.648	1.571	1.988	1.563
Low ArgLysMet	C. perfringens	8	1.078	0.22	1.634	1.575	1.864	1.559
Low ArgLysMet	LPS	8	1.099	0.182	1.636	1.574	2.16	1.608
High ArgLysMet	No	8	1.118	0.248	1.774	1.59	2.012	1.593
High ArgLysMet	C. perfringens	8	1.159	0.206	1.691	1.479	2.214	1.477
High ArgLysMet	LPS	8	1.173	0.169	1.731	1.522	2.5	1.631
SEM			0.01	0.011	0.015	0.02	0.095	0.023
P-value
Diet			0.003	0.91	0.002	0.28	0.217	0.838
Challenge			0.442	0.11	0.382	0.542	0.311	0.21
Diet × Challenge			0.416	0.562	0.612	0.496	0.731	0.542

¹ Low ArgLysMet, diets with low arginine, lysine and methionine levels; High ArgLysMet, diets with high arginine, lysine and methionine levels.
² At 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).

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