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Cellulose Digestion by Domestic Turkeys Fed Low or High Fiber Diets¹

Departments of Veterinary Biology ^* Biochemistry, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108

To determine whether dietary preconditioning might improve fibrolysis in turkeys, Wrolstad Medium white hens were fed either a high (16.13%, HF) or low (2.80%, LF) fiber diet for 6–60 weeks. The substrate to test for cellulolysis, [¹⁴C]cellulose, was introduced into the gizzard per os or into one cecum via a cannulated fistula. Immediately after [¹⁴C]cellulose introduction, turkeys were placed in an airtight chamber (0.3 m³) from which exhaled CO₂ was collected and analyzed for ¹⁴CO₂. An average of 10.4% of the ¹⁴C was recovered in CO₂ from turkeys fed the HF diet, and only 2.9% was recovered from the LF-fed birds that were orally dosed. In turkeys dosed via cecal cannula, recoveries averaged 15.4 and 2.9% for HF- and LF-fed birds, respectively. Recoveries were 7.0 and 1.4% in HF- and LF-fed turkeys that were cecectomized. Preconditioning to an HF diet does appear to improve cellulolysis.

KEY WORDS: • cellulose • digestion • dietary fiber • turkeys

¹ This research was partially supported by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, Project 26–44. This manuscript is no. 13,390 in the AES Scientific Journal series.

Manuscript received 10 June 1983.

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