Potassium requirement of mule ducklings

Chu, C. L.; Wei, H. W.; Chen, B. J.; Shen, T. F.

doi:1996.9.6.643

Article

Swine Nutrition and Feed Technology

Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 1996;9(6): 643-646.
https://doi.org/10.5713/ajas.1996.643 Published online December 1, 1996.

Potassium requirement of mule ducklings

C. L. Chu, H. W. Wei, B. J. Chen, T. F. Shen

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to determine potassium(K) requirement of mule ducklings. One-day-old ducklings with equal number of both sexes were fed diets containing graded levels of K for three weeks. In experiment 1, corn-soybean meal diet(CP 18.7%, ME 2,890 kcal/kg, K 0.80%) was used. The addition of K(0.00, 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40%) to the diet by potassium carbonate resulted in a decrease in weight gain and feed efficiency with the group fed on basal diet having the best performance. This meanss that the existing K in the basal diet is adequate for the growth of ducklings. In experiment 2, low K corn-isolated soy protein diet(K, 0.19%) was used. The supplementation of K(0.00, 0.16, 0.32, 0.48, 0.64%) resulted in an increase in weight gain and feed efficiency with the control group having the lowest performance. The minimum K requirement was found to be 0.49% for both maximum growth and best feed efficiency as determined by using bent-stick model.

Keywords: Potassium; Requirement; Duckling