A Pinch of Iodine in Mom's Feed Helps Young Turkeys Survive, Thrive.

RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 1999--

North Carolina State University researchers have found that adding a tiny amount of iodine to a female turkey's feed can boost the number of eggs that hatch successfully, and also promote healthier, faster growing young birds.

"This is natural growth, not synthetically induced or genetically engineered," Dr. Vern Christensen, professor of poultry science, says. "Iodine is a naturally occurring component of thyroid hormones. We've found that it plays a key role in helping organ systems mature faster than they would have normally, so a young poult's state of maturity at hatching is more advanced."

Christensen's team produced a 4.2 percent increase in hatching rates -- a tenfold improvement over old standards -- by adding just four parts per million of iodine to breeder hens' feed. The iodine-enriched diet also resulted in a 50 percent improvement in post-hatching survival rates and significantly faster growth after that, especially from the sixth day on.

In recent years, geneticists working to speed the growth of turkeys have focused their attention on boosting the growth of muscle mass, often to the detriment of the embryos' other developing organ systems. "When a turkey is genetically selected for increased muscle mass development, there's often a trade-off, because it gives up growth in other vital organ systems, like the heart or lungs," Christensen says. This means that although the embryo has the muscles to break through the shell, its life-sustaining organs are less mature than they should be, making it more likely to die or grow more slowly.

Feeding the breeder hen an iodine-enriched feed can help balance this inequity, he says.

The cost to producers of feeding hens an iodine-enriched diet is just a few cents per ton of feed. Based on USDA national production figures of between 300 million and 360 million young poults a year, growers could save $17 million a year in reduced mortalities. And that doesn't account for increased profits from reducing the number of days it takes to raise turkeys to market size.

Christensen and his colleagues have published their findings in two peer-reviewed papers this year in the journal Poultry Science.