Effect of Dietary Vitamin K1 on Selected Plasma Characteristics and Bone Ash in Young Turkeys Fed Diets Adequate or Deficient in Vitamin D3

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted to determine the effect of dietary vitamin K1 (K1) on selected plasma characteristics and bone ash in poults. In Experiment 1, diets were supplemented with 0, 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 mg of K1/kg. All diets contained 1,650 IU of vitamin D3 (D3)/kg. Dietary K1 had no effect on tibia ash at 7 d or incidence of a severe, rickets-like condition. Tibia ash of poults fed 2.0 mg of K1/kg, however, was greater at 14 d of age than that of poults fed the basal diet. Dietary inclusion of 0.5 mg of K1/kg was as effective as 1 or 2 mg of K1/kg in reducing plasma prothrombin time. In Experiment 2, a 2 x 4 factorial arrangement was used consisting of 1,650 or 550 IU of D3/kg and 0.1, 0.45, 1.0, and 2.0 mg of K1/kg. Dietary D3 and K1 had no effect on bone ash. Dietary inclusion of 0.1 mg of K1/kg seemed to be enough to minimize plasma prothrombin time. In Experiment 3, dietary treatments consisted of a control (1,650 IU of D3 and 2.0 mg of K1/kg) and K1 concentrations of 0, 0.37, 2.28, or 5.33 mg/kg in diets containing 275 IU of D3/kg. Poults fed the low-D3 diet without K1 consumed less feed, gained less weight, and had increased plasma alkaline phosphatase activity, decreased inorganic phosphorus level, and decreased tibia ash (P < 0.05) compared with those of poults fed the control diet. Feed intake and body weight gain were improved, plasma alkaline phosphatase activity decreased, and plasma inorganic phosphorus increased or tended to increase when poults were fed the low-D3 diet supplemented with 0.37 or 2.88 mg of K1/kg compared with poults fed the low-D3 diet without K1 supplementation. Tibia ash of poults fed the low-D3 diet was not affected by K1 supplementation. The results of this research show that dietary K1 concentration had little, if any, effect on bone development in 1- to 14-d-old turkeys.

Vitamin K supplementation for meat quail in growth of 1 to 14 days old

“…Likewise, Jin et al (2001), supplementing the diet of 1 to 14-day-old turkeys, detected no significant effect on weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion. Askim et al (2012) studied the intake of menaquinone (K2) in the diet of22-day-old broilers and observed that groups with a higher intake of this source of vitamin K showed lower growth, concluding that there is no need for supplementation provided there is a natural source.…”

“…On the other hand, they did not observe a significant effect on the weight and length of the tibia, unlike the evaluation in this study where there was a linear increase in the tibia of the quails supplemented with vitamin K. These authors also evaluated mineral density, getting a quadratic effect, agreeing with the result of this research. By working with four vitamin K supplementation levels for turkeys, Jin et al (2001) found no significant differences in the ashes of the tibia at 7 days of age. However, when assessing only the control group and the group with the highest vitamin K supplementation (2.0 mg), they observed higher concentrations of ash in the supplemented group.…”