Effect of dietary protein deficiency on the performance of turkeys and chickens.

Two field occurrences of protein-deficiency disease were reported in turkeys and chickens. The disease caused unthriftiness, poor growth, and the exhibition of pica in flocks of 15-week-old pedigree large white turkeys, and it resulted in a sharp drop (18%) in egg production in a flock of 60-week-old white leghorn layers. In each case, the disease was cured by replacing the protein-deficient diet with a protein-sufficient one.