Studies in Duck Nutrition

Abstract

In an earlier study (Heuser and associates, 1951) it was noted that when Pekin ducklings were kept on wire-mesh floors and fed practical rations, a considerable number of the ducks showed a severe bowing of the legs and resulted in cull ducks at market time. Fritz et al. (1941) and Motzok and Branion (1948) also reported this bowing of the legs. Since Scott (1951) reported that yeast prevented a hock disorder in turkeys, it was considered desirable to determine whether or not yeast would also prevent the bowed leg deformity in ducks. The basal ration used in these studies was composed of the following ingredients in pounds per 100 pounds of total ration: corn meal, 40; wheat flour middlings, 15; wheat standard middlings, 15; pulverized oats, 10; fish meal, 8; soybean meal, 10; dicalcium phosphate, 1; limestone, 0.5; salt (iodized), 0.25; D-activated animal sterol, 0.1; stabilized dry vitamin A, 0.1. . . .