Influence of diet composition on the weight gains of Wistar rat.

The composition of diets used for breeding and experimentation on laboratory animals is one of the important factors affecting the quality of the animals and the comparison of experimental data between different laboratories. Six diets used either at the Institute of Physiology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague, or in the Research Centre of Molecular Biology and Medicine, Academy of Sciences GDR in Berlin were analysed for moisture, crude protein, fat, fibre, ash, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and chloride and fed to Wistar rats for 70 and 112 days. Weight gains of the animals were compared and statistically evaluated. The greatest weight gains were achieved with animals fed on the DOS 2b diet.