Vitamin Supplementation in Poultry
Historical Background on Poultry Nutrition
Historically speaking the Nutrition Standards for Poultry have been promulgated by the National Research Council, otherwise know as the, NRC. The nutritional needs of Poultry have been researched and published by this arm of the United States National Academies since the early 1900’s.
The last published journal by the NRC was published in 1994. The journal is called The Nutrient Requirements of Poultry, 9 th. revised edition,1994.
Improvements in management practices as well as research improvements in genetics, both plant and animal have changed a lot of the thinking practices applied to feeding chickens and for that matter all types of livestock animals. There are those that feel NRC 1994 may not be adequate enough to provide sufficient guidelines as there have been no updates in twenty years.
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When Should You Supplement Vitamins?
Deciding when it may be appropriate to supplement a flocks diet with additional vitamins will require you to have some basic knowledge of Vitamins and their interactions in the birds body.
The decision to supplement should take into consideration all of the environmental factors of the flock such as:
Heat
Cold
Type of housing
Stresses within the flock
The purpose of the flock will also play a role in the decision to supplement or not. Will the birds be kept as pets, or will they fall into one of the production categories such as:
Meat production
Egg production
Breeders
Free range
All of these flocks will have different Nutritional needs that may or may not be able to be met with just normal feeding alone.
Other Factors That Influence Supplementation
Some additional factors to consider when making a decision to supplement or not are as follows:
Stresses associated with handling
Moving
Vaccination
Breeding season
Disease problems
Factors that may affect the feed quality should be considered as well. Some of those factors are:
Weather
High moisture due to excessive rain during growing and harvest
Mold on the corn and other feed ingredients
The age of the feed you are buying is critical to its Nutritional Viability as the Vitamins are sensitive to Ph changes, light, heat, and other trace minerals and additives that may be used in the production of a complete feed.
Water Soluble Vitamins
Vitamins are broken down into two separate categories, those that are water soluble and those that are fat soluble.
Water soluble vitamins are not associated with fat absorption and their absorption is not affected by fats in the birds diet.
The water soluble vitamins are:
B-1 – Thiamine
B-2 – Riboflavin
B-3 – Niacin
B-5 – Pantothenic Acid
B-6 – Pyridoxine
B-9 – Folic Acid
B-12
Vitamin H – Biotin
Vitamin C
Water soluble vitamins are metabolized from the feed and are used very rapidly by the birds as digestion takes place.
If there are more Water Soluble Vitamins available than the bird can use during the metabolic process then those excess vitamins are excreted either through the birds droppings or directly through the Urine.
Water soluble vitamins for the most part are not stored in the birds body for future use when needed. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to make sure that the Feed that you are using is the best quality available to you.
Adequate supplies of the Water Soluble Vitamin Group must be available on a daily basis or a deficiency will occur.
Abnormalities From Water Soluble Vitamin Deficiencies
Some of the abnormalities that may occur with a deficiency of Water Soluble Vitamins are listed here:
Vitamin B-1 – Appetite loss and Neurological disorders.
Vitamin B-2 – Curly toe paralysis and slow growth.
Vitamin B-3 – Overall weakness, slow growth and digestive disorders.
Vitamin B-5 – Lowered egg production and hatchability issues.
Vitamin B-6 – Skin dermatitis and convulsions.
Vitamin H (Biotin) – Depression and skin lesions.
Vitamin B-9 – Perosis (deformed leg bones), poor feathering and poor growth.
Vitamin B-12 – Perosis (deformed leg bones), poor feathering, anemia and fatty livers.
Vitamin C – Generally not considered as a deficient Vitamin as it can be synthesized by the birds. If a deficiency should occur one might see slowed growth and weak egg shells.
Fat Soluble Vitamins
The second group of vitamins is the Fat Soluble Vitamins.
The Fat soluble vitamins are associated with the absorption of fats in the diet. The vitamins in this group are:
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
This group is a bit more forgiving in that they are metabolized from the feed and the bird uses what it needs and stores the balance for future needs.
These Fat Soluble Vitamins are usually stored in various parts of the body such as:
The Brain
Liver
Other body tissues
In spite of this storage capability deficiencies still occur.
One must also be careful not to over supplement, as this if continued over a significant period of time could lead to Vitamin toxicity.
Abnormalities From Fat Soluble Vitamin Deficiencies
Some of the abnormalities that can be caused by deficiencies of the Fat Soluble Vitamin Group are as follows:
Vitamin A – Eye lesions, and severe muscle in-coordination.
Vitamin D – Rickets, and weak bones.
Vitamin E – Inappetence and encephalomalacia.
Vitamin K – Reduced blood clotting time, and hemorrhaging.
How Vitamins Are Excreted
Vitamins both water soluble and fat soluble are excreted from the body through various mechanisms and excreted either through the Feces, Urine or Bile.
The route of excretion for the water and fat soluble vitamins are listed here:
Vitamin B-1 – Both the urine and feces
Vitamin B-2 – Urine
Vitamin B-3 – Urine
Vitamin B-5 – Urine
Vitamin B-6 – Urine
Vitamin B-9 – Mostly feces and some in the urine
Vitamin B-12 – Feces
Vitamin H – Urine and feces
Vitamin C – Urine
Vitamin A – Mainly bile and some in the feces
Vitamin Therapy in Poultry
We all have heard or know of the potential benefits of Vitamin Therapy for humans, but I would guess that most of you never knew that it does exist for your animals as well.
I will explain the benefits of using such a program on your birds.
The use of vitamins to help treat disease has been around for many years. So, why should we use vitamins to treat diseases when we have so many drugs available to us to use?
The reason is that many of the drugs that we have relied on in the past have been taken off the market or there is a reasonable amount of disease resistance to these drugs.
Another reason is that the cost of some drugs have sky rocketed as a result of corporate mergers. There is growing pressure on the drug companies to control prices in the human drug market and therefore the animal drug market is perceived as a cash cow.
Vitamin E and the Immune System
Let us examine the role of Vitamin E in relation to its role in stimulating the birds immune system.
Research shows that birds that are deficient in Vitamin E had depressed antibody production and an impaired immune response.
What this means to you is that the birds ability to fight off disease is greatly reduced.
Many times you will not see the text book cases of Vitamin E deficiency in order for a bird to be deficient in Vitamin E.
You may only see things such as:
Poor immune response
Failure to adequately respond to drug therapy
Failure to respond to vaccination
Lowered blood titer levels
These are measured as the amount of antibodies circulating in the blood stream.
Vitamin E helps protect leukocytes and macrophages during phagocytosis, the mechanism whereby animals immunologically kill invading bacteria.
Vitamin E also has a stabilizing and regulatory effect on cell membranes in order to maintain optimal cell function.
Vitamin E Supplementation Studies
Studies conducted on fowl using diets supplemented with Vitamin E have continually shown good results.
Chicks given high doses of Vitamin E were protected against E. coli with increased phagocytosis and antibody production.
Birds receiving no Vitamin E supplementation experienced 40% mortality, while those birds receiving a diet fortified with Vitamin E had less than 5% mortality from E.coli.
In another study chicks were fed a diet enriched with Vitamin E and then challenged with coccidiosis.
They experienced:
Weight gain
Reduced mortality
Even in the face of a severe challenge from coccidiosis.
Additional studies conducted on chickens have shown that diets supplemented with Vitamin E have repeatedly shown increased antibody production.
Baby chicks fed a diet supplemented with 225 I.U. to 450 I.U. of Vitamin E daily were less susceptible to bacterial infection and had lower mortality rates.
Other Functions of Vitamin E
Vitamin E plays an important role in:
The synthesis of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
The metabolism of Sulfur Amino Acids
The metabolism of Vitamin B-12
Vitamin B-12 is an important component of the hemoglobin of the blood.
Safety of Vitamin E
Studies have indicated that the range of safety for Vitamin E is quite wide.
A range of 450 to 900 I.U. per pound of diet has been shown to be well tolerated by chickens.
Vitamin E is stored in all body tissues with the highest concentrations being in the liver.
Vitamin E toxicity is not common but is possible.
Symptoms include:
Depressed growth rate
Increased prothrombin time (time it takes blood to clot)
This condition can be corrected by giving Vitamin K.
Wheat Germ Oil as a Vitamin E Source
Vitamin E supplementation with Wheat Germ Oil should be evaluated by the quality of the Oil being used.
In an effort to contain costs of Pure Wheat Germ Oil there has been a movement towards blending Wheat Germ Oil and Soy Bean Oil together for use as a supplement.
High quality Wheat Germ Oil contains approximately 100 IU of Vitamin E per ounce.
Understanding Vitamin Pack Calculations
When evaluating water soluble vitamin packs it is important to note that all calculations on the package are based on a one pound sample.
For example:
If a package says that it has 8,000 units of a particular vitamin and the bag weighs four ounces, then divide the 8,000 units by four.
This means the four ounce package contains 2,000 units.
If Vitamin E content is listed in milligrams, use this conversion:
Multiply milligrams by 1.49 to convert to International Units.
Example:
50 milligrams × 1.49 = 74.50 I.U. per pound
Final Thoughts on Vitamin Supplementation
Most poultry feeds contain low amounts of Vitamin E and I would suggest that you supplement your birds diet after figuring out what the Vitamin E content of your feed is.
Most poultry feeds contain between 2.3 and 10.0 I.U. of Vitamin E activity.
Use good judgment and I don’t think you will have any trouble supplementing your birds diet with Vitamin E or any other vitamin that may be needed.
