Urease activity in the digestive tract of the chick and its role in the utilisation of urea as a source of non‐amino nitrogen

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Abstract
1. Urease activity was found in caecal contents (about 10 mg urea metabolised/g h) and crop contents (about 0.5 mg urea metabolised/g h): there was very low activity in the contents of the colon but none in the rest of the digestive tract. 2. The urease activity of the crop contents was not bacterial in origin but the soyabean meal contained in the diet was found to have comparable activity. 3. Diets low in non‐essential nitrogen and based on soyabean, fish meal or fish meal plus 0.2% jack bean urease, did not support higher growth rates when supplemented with urea. 4. The livers of chicks fed on the diet containing fish meal, urea and urease had significantly higher concentrations of free non‐essential amino acids than those of chicks fed on the same diet but with urease excluded. This suggested that dietary urease affects the availability of ammonia for the synthesis of non‐essential amino acids but not for growth.