Studies on the Availability of Calcium Orthophosphates to Chickens and Turkeys

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Abstract
Experiments were conducted to study the availability of phosphorus in different chemical grades and various types of calcium orthophosphate to chicks and turkey poults. In general the primary calcium phosphate salt is the most available, followed by the secondary, with the tertiary salt being the least available. However, the degree of hydration and resulting physical and chemical form of the secondary salt also affects the degree of availability, with the dihydrated salt being more available than the anhydrous form. It was shown that the chick does not differentiate to the same degree as the turkey poult between the various chemical grades and forms of calcium phosphate. In particular, the turkey poult utilized the anhydrous form of dicalcium phosphate much less efficiently than the dihydrate form. Thus anhydrous dicalcium phosphate is not the preferred source of dietary phosphorus for this species.