Isoleucine imbalance using selected mixtures of imbalancing amino acids in diets of the broiler chick

Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.

Three experiments were conducted to determine the isoleucine requirement of a broiler from the time of hatch to 16 d of age. Chicks in the experiments were fed an isoleucine-limiting diet composed of wheat and peanut meal as the primary protein sources; this diet was used to investigate various mixtures of amino acids as imbalancing agents for isoleucine. The isoleucine requirement for maximum weight gain and feed efficiency was determined on the basis of broken-line regression analysis to be 0.63 to 0.65% of the diet or 3.28 to 3.38% of dietary protein. A similar diet, marginally limiting in isoleucine, was used to investigate the response of chicks to the addition of various mixtures of amino acids to the diet. Chicks that received a 5% dietary addition of 11 amino acids consisting of equimolar concentrations of leucine, valine, histidine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, tyrosine, alanine, glycine, serine, and threonine had significantly lower weight gain and feed consumption and a higher feed conversion ratio than did chicks fed the basal diet. These adverse effects were only partly prevented by an isoleucine supplement. The large neutral amino acids, histidine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine, accounted for most of the effect of the mixture. No effect of a mixture of leucine and valine or a mixture of the small neutral amino acids (alanine, glycine, serine, and threonine) at the same concentrations as those in the mixture of the 11 amino acids was observed. Lysine and arginine were the only two indispensable amino acids not present in the mixture of 11 amino acids. A subsequent experiment demonstrated that these amino acids did not become co-limiting with isoleucine when the diet was imbalanced with the amino acid mixture. These results indicate that an isoleucine imbalance in chicks is readily precipitated by excessive dietary concentrations of large neutral amino acids in diets that are otherwise marginally adequate in isoleucine.

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