Kemin Industries has received approval for the use of KemTRACE® Chromium in growing turkey diets. The product supplies 0.2 ppm chromium to feed at an addition rate of one pound per ton of the 0.4 percent commercial product.
In a trial conducted at North Carolina State University, KemTRACE® Cr was evaluated in turkeys grown through 84 days of age in replicate floor pens. Treatments comprised a non-supplemented control and 0.2 ppm chromium propionate supplement. Average daily gain was numerically higher in turkeys receiving the KemTRACE® Cr supplement at 0.2ppm attaining 106.7g per day. Turkeys receiving the control diet, that analyzed over 2.0ppm of chromium, gained 101.9g per day. Feed conversion efficiency was significantly improved compared to the controls at 2.18 to 2.11 for the supplemented treatment. Given the duration of the trial and daily weight gain, live weights of the control and treatment were respectively 8.62kg and 9.03kg. Effectively, chromium supplementation provided 410g of additional live weight or 320g of RTC mass but required the consumption of an incremental 168g of feed.
Concurrently, it was demonstrated that a supplementation rate of five times the approved level attaining 1.0 ppm chromium had no deleterious effect on live performance or hematologic or blood chemistry parameters in turkeys through 84 days of age.
Human food safety of chromium supplementation was demonstrated by assays of liver, muscle, kidney and skin with adherent fat and demonstrated only small increases in chromium concentrations in edible tissues. It was concluded that supplemental KemTRACE® Chromium at five times the approved level (1.0ppm) would have minimal effect on total chromium intake by humans.
Spears, J.W. et al. Chromium Propionate in Turkeys: Effect on Performance and Animal Safety, Poultry Science doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2023.103195
Spears, J.W. et al. Chromium Propionate in Turkeys: Effects on Incident Sensitivity, Poultry Science doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2023.103215
Spears, J.W. et al. Chromium Propionate for Turkeys: Effects on Tissue Chromium Concentrations in Human Food Safety, Poultry Science doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2023.103196