Studies of the Potassium Requirement of Turkey Poults Fed Purified Diets1

IN A previous report from this laboratory, tests were described in which the early growth of poults was improved when 0.3% KCl was added to a washed soy protein-sucrose type experimental diet containing 0.37% potassium, all but an insignificant amount of which was supplied as K2HPO4 (Supplee et al., 1958a). Subsequent tests using different levels of KCl supplementation indicated that at least 0.5% potassium was required in this diet for maximum poult growth (Supplee et al., 1958b). To determine more definitely the minimum adequate potassium level and also to eliminate the possibility that the growth responses which had been obtained were due to increases in chlorine level, further tests have been conducted in which different potassium levels were obtained by varying the K2HPO4 content of the diet rather than by adding KCl. The effect of NaCl content on response to potassium also has been investigated and comparative work has been …