Ideal ratio (relative to lysine) of tryptophan, threonine, isoleucine, and valine for chicks during the second and third weeks posthatch

Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801, USA. d-baker1@uiuc.edu

Six bioassays were conducted to determine the ideal ratios of several amino acids relative to Lys. Young male crossbred chicks were fed diets based on corn gluten meal and synthetic amino acids that could be made singly deficient in Lys, Trp, Thr, Ile, or Val. Diets for all assays contained 3,400 kcal ME/kg, and L-glutamic acid was used to make all diets (within and among assays) equal in crude protein at 22.5% of the diet. True digestibility assessment of corn gluten meal in cecectomized roosters facilitated dose-titration studies so that least squares fitted one-slope broken-lines and quadratic regression equations could be calculated to establish inflection points for weight gain and gain:feed. Four battery pens of four chicks were fed one of six amino acid levels from 8 to 21 or 22 d posthatching. Weight gain and gain:feed responded quadratically (P < 0.01) to increasing doses of digestible Lys (0.68 to 1.28%), Trp (0.09 to 0.24%), Thr (0.41 to 0.81%), Ile (0.45 to 0.95%), and Val (0.51 to 1.06%). Broken-line least squares analysis predicted breakpoints for gain and gain:feed, respectively, of: Lys (0.85, 0.96%), Trp (0.16, 0.16%), Thr (0.53, 0.53%), Ile (0.59, 0.58%), and Val (0.74, 0.74%). The intercept of the quadratic regression curve and the plateau of the broken line predicted digestible Lys requirements for gain and gain:feed, respectively, of 0.95 and 1.03%. Similar calculations predicted digestible Trp requirements of 0.18% for gain and gain:feed, digestible Thr requirements of 0.59% for gain and 0.60% for gain:feed, digestible Ile requirements of 0.68% for gain and gain:feed, and digestible Val requirements of 0.81% for gain and 0.82% for gain:feed. Regardless of curve-fitting method, gain:feed requirements for Lys were much higher than weight gain requirements. Using the higher of the broken-line requirement estimates for gain and gain:feed, ideal ratios (% of Lys) were as follows: Lys (100), Trp (16.6), Thr (55.7), Ile (61.4), and Val (77.5).

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