vitamin-k-1 and Poultry-Diseases

1. Female chicks of a White Leghorn strain were fed three different diets from one day old: control, additional vitamin K3 (10 mg/kg), and a diet containing a combination of additional vitamin K3, sodium fluoride (10 mg/kg) and limestone in particulate rather than powdered form. At 16 weeks photoperiod was increased for half the birds from 8:16 L:D to 16:8 L:D immediately or by one hour per week to the same ultimate photoperiod for the other half. 2. Age at first egg was lower by 4.0 d for birds on the fast lighting regime but there were no overall effects of lighting on bone quality at either 25 or 70 weeks. 3. Additional vitamin K3 resulted in higher proximal tarsometatarsus cancellous bone volumes at 15 weeks and throughout the laying period compared with controls. Plasma osteocalcin concentrations were unaffected by vitamin K3 supplementation during growth. 4. The combination diet resulted in beneficial responses of 12 to 20% in most bone characteristics in hens at 70 weeks. The magnitude of these effects was similar to a previous study involving a particulate calcium source alone (Fleming et al., Poultry Science, 39: 434-440, 1998b). We conclude that the beneficial effects of the combined treatment over the lifetime of the hens were attributable mainly to the presence in the diet of a calcium source in particulate form.

Topics: Animal Feed; Animals; Bone Development; Calcium Carbonate; Chickens; Dietary Supplements; Female; Fluorides; Light; Osteoporosis; Oviposition; Poultry Diseases; Vitamin K 1

Three experiments were conducted to determine the effect of dietary vitamin K1 (K1) on selected plasma characteristics and bone ash in poults. In Experiment 1, diets were supplemented with 0, 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 mg of K1/kg. All diets contained 1,650 IU of vitamin D3 (D3)/kg. Dietary K1 had no effect on tibia ash at 7 d or incidence of a severe, rickets-like condition. Tibia ash of poults fed 2.0 mg of K1/kg, however, was greater at 14 d of age than that of poults fed the basal diet. Dietary inclusion of 0.5 mg of K1/kg was as effective as 1 or 2 mg of K1/kg in reducing plasma prothrombin time. In Experiment 2, a 2 x 4 factorial arrangement was used consisting of 1,650 or 550 IU of D3/kg and 0.1, 0.45, 1.0, and 2.0 mg of K1/kg. Dietary D3 and K1 had no effect on bone ash. Dietary inclusion of 0.1 mg of K1/kg seemed to be enough to minimize plasma prothrombin time. In Experiment 3, dietary treatments consisted of a control (1,650 IU of D3 and 2.0 mg of K1/kg) and K1 concentrations of 0, 0.37, 2.28, or 5.33 mg/kg in diets containing 275 IU of D3/kg. Poults fed the low-D3 diet without K1 consumed less feed, gained less weight, and had increased plasma alkaline phosphatase activity, decreased inorganic phosphorus level, and decreased tibia ash (P < 0.05) compared with those of poults fed the control diet. Feed intake and body weight gain were improved, plasma alkaline phosphatase activity decreased, and plasma inorganic phosphorus increased or tended to increase when poults were fed the low-D3 diet supplemented with 0.37 or 2.88 mg of K1/kg compared with poults fed the low-D3 diet without K1 supplementation. Tibia ash of poults fed the low-D3 diet was not affected by K1 supplementation. The results of this research show that dietary K1 concentration had little, if any, effect on bone development in 1- to 14-d-old turkeys.

Topics: Alkaline Phosphatase; Animals; Antifibrinolytic Agents; Bone and Bones; Cholecalciferol; Male; Phosphorus; Poultry Diseases; Prothrombin Time; Rickets; Time Factors; Turkeys; Vitamin D Deficiency; Vitamin K 1