CANOLA-MEAL AND DIET ACID-BASE-BALANCE FOR BROILERS

Experiments were undertaken to investigate the influence of dietary su lphur, calcium and altered anion-cation balance on the response of chi cks fed soybean or canola meal diets. The addition of supplemental sul phur to a semi-purified soybean meal diet resulted in a marked decreas e in feed intake and weight gain. Additional dietary calcium helped to alleviate the depression caused by excess dietary sulphur. Plotting d ietary meq (ranging from - 3.7 to + 13.4) against weight gain suggeste d that anion-cation balance was responsible, in part, for the response s noted. Supplementing a canola meal semi-purified diet with sulphur, calcium and a mixture of potassium and sodium carbonate to alter diet anion-cation balance by 0, 10 and 20 meq confirmed that the interactio n noted with dietary sulphur and calcium supplementation of soybean an d canola meals diets is caused in large part by changes in anion-catio n balance of the diet. Thus the present data confirm previous suggesti ons that part of the growth depression noted with canola meal suppleme nted diets is due to its high sulphur content and thus an altering of anion-cation balance.