Medicated vs NON-Medicated

[ChickFlick99]

Hi, I am doing an expirement on the weight gains and overall health of chickens on Mediated and NON-Medicated poultry feed, and I need some other opinions on if anyone has noticed a big difference in the growth of the chickens. Thanks!

 

[lazy gardener]

You'll likely not see any difference in weight gain. Good luck, keep us posted. Please let us know how you set up your experiment, and what your results are.

 

[DanEP]

Around here medicated feed tends to be 18% protein while the non medicated runs 20 to 22%. With that difference there is a definite difference in weight gain. you might have to match protein levels to get better results with your test.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I agree. They'll have to be identical feeds except for the addition of the thiamine blocker. Otherwise the results will be meaningless.
I also agree that if you have identical feeds, you're not likely to see a difference.

 

[CrazyTalk]

I haven't been able to find any studies on this where the birds weren't intentionally infected with coccidiosis - I'd assume you'd see no difference except in the case of heavy cocci loads, where the medicated birds are going to do much better.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Good point.

 

[Chris09]

The correct way to do this experiment would be to use a non-medicated feed on both sets of birds and medicate the water of the medicated birds.This way both sets of chicks get the exact same feed out of the exact same bag.

You can get Amprolium in a powder forum that you add to water.
Amprolium mimics thiamin (Vitamin B1) which is required by coccidia for normal growth and reproduction.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Hi, I am doing an expirement on the weight gains and overall health of chickens on Mediated and NON-Medicated poultry feed, and I need some other opinions on if anyone has noticed a big difference in the growth of the chickens. Thanks!

Regardless of what some people best left unmentioned say, "Medicated" chicken feed doesn't have any medicine in it."

The people in some quarters however want to convince the world that every bite of egg white on your breakfast plate is pure Penicillin.

Chris & Crazy have it going on.

The purpose of "Medicated" chick feed is to ward off Coccidiosis by using either an incomplete vitamin B1 feed additive or else an additive that mimics Vitamin B1 to help starve and prevents the rapid reproduction of the one celled Coccidiosis animal until the baby chickens' system has built up its own immunity to the Coccidiosis parasite.

The big difference you will see, especially on ground where chickens have been kept recently or for a long time, is a larger number of live chicks if you feed "Medicated" feed verses non-medicated feed. In other words the total weight of the flock goes up, not necessarily the individual weight of anyone chicken.

 

[casportpony]

Medicated *chick* starter has amprolium in it, but *most* do not have antibiotics in them.

Quote: Quote: How Amprolium works
Structurally, amprolium mimics thiamin (Vitamin B1) which is required by coccidia for normal growth and reproduction. When coccidia ingest amprolium, they experience thiamin deficiency and starve from malnutrition. amprolium has been experimentally administered at many times the recommended dosage and duration with no signs of toxicity.

When Amprolium works
Amprolium stops coccidia at a critical stage in the host animal's small intestine to prevent more damaging coccidiosis in the large intestine. By acting on the young asexual stages of the coccidia life cycle, amprolium allows exposure to first-generation schizonts, so the host animal can develop natural immunity to coccidia. This makes amprolium effective as a preventive therapy.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Hi, I am doing an expirement on the weight gains and overall health of chickens on Mediated and NON-Medicated poultry feed, and I need some other opinions on if anyone has noticed a big difference in the growth of the chickens. Thanks!

I like experiments! Good luck.

-Kathy