Efficacy of feeding spray-dried porcine plasma to turkeys during brooding on performance to market age.

The effect of feeding spray dried porcine plasma (SDPP) to male turkeys during the first 4 weeks of life was evaluated at 20 weeks of age. A total of 648 male Hybrid Converter day-old turkeys were divided into two groups of 9 replicate pens of 36 birds each, and fed a commercial-type program of 7 diet phases. In phase 1 birds were fed a corn-soybean meal Control diet for 4 weeks, or a diet with 2% SDPP of similar nutrient density. Thereafter, both groups were fed common diets until the end of the trial at 20 weeks of age. At 4 weeks of age, birds were subjected to heat stress and crowding for a period of 24 hrs to simulate the stress induced commercially when moved from the brooder house into a grow-out building. Poults fed SDPP had greater body weight (BW) and body weight gain at 6 (p<0.05) and at 9 weeks of age (p<0.10). At 20 weeks of age, BW of turkeys fed SDPP vs Control was not different. However, the European Productivity Index (EPI) that incorporates final body weight, feed conversion ratio and livability, tended to be higher (p<0.10) for the SDPP group (EPI = 545 vs 529, respectively) because of the higher livability trend exhibited in SDPP group (96.91 vs 94.75%, respectively). Likewise, birds fed SDPP showed significantly lower frequency of foot pad lesions vs Controls (p<0.05) by the end of the study. In conclusion, SDPP fed early in life can reduce stress, improve performance and reduce incidence of foot pad lesions in turkeys.