Variation in Tolerance of Turkeys to Dietary Copper

Abstract

The tolerance of animals for copper has been reviewed by Mehring et al. (1960). Generally it was found that a level of near 500 p.p.m. was the minimum required for expression of toxicity with chicks and rats. In our laboratory in an experiment studying the influence of copper on molybdenum toxicity, unexpected differences in copper toxicity of poults receiving either a natural or a purified diet were observed. The study reported herein was established to confirm and enlarge upon these observations. Broad White turkeys maintained in conventional batteries were fed the natural diet (Table 1) during 0–7 days of life. At the end of this period they were distributed equitably by weight into lots of 7 each with triplicate lots being used for each treatment. The purified diet employed is listed in Table 2. Hemoglobin was determined using an Autoanalyzer; the values were standardized using the method of Denington…