A NOTE ON THE USE OF INDUSTRIAL SACCHARINA IN TURKEY FATTENING

Two experiments under production conditions were carried out for evalu ating the inclusion of industrial Saccharina in diets for fattening G7 turkeys. In the first one, 2260 young turkeys were used and Saccharin a was included at 15% in the starter (21 to 45 days of age) and at 30% in the finishing diet (46 to 90 days), while in the second with 2026 young turkeys only Saccharina at 30% was included in the finishing die t. The productive indicators during the beginning were affected with S accharina inclusion, which determined a worst feed conversion (4.458 v s 5.39) and lower viability (96.4 versus 88.3%). However, during the f inishing stage, liveweight gains similar to the control (2420 vs 2404 and 2680 vs 2610 g/bird) and better traditional raw material conversio ns (4.07 vs 2.64 and 3.72 vs 2.40) for the first and second experiment , respectively were obtained with the inclusion of 30%. Results indica te the feasibility of using in the finishing diet of the fattening tur keys 30% Saccharina, although further studies on the utilization of Sa ccharina in the starting period are required.