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Evaluation of a natural methionine source on broiler growth performance
Zafar Hayat1, Abd Ur Rehman1, Kashif Akram2
1Department of Animal Sciences, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan.
Background:
Methionine, a sulfur-containing amino acid, is essential for the health and growth of broilers, so its optimum level should be provided in broiler diets. Synthetic methionine sources used by poultry nutritionists may cause health hazards in broilers as, during conversion of synthetic methionine to the active form, homocysteine is produced which may be injurious to body tissues when there is a lack of coordination between methyl group donors and acceptors. Thus the present study evaluates the efficacy of a natural methionine source.
Results:
The comparative growth performance of broilers fed synthetic and/or natural methionine was observed. Results revealed that the basal diet has a lower growth performance (P < 0.05) than all other diets. However, replacement of synthetic methionine with a naturally sourced methionine has no significant effect (P > 0.05) on weight gain, feed consumption or feed conversion ratio. Serum biochemistry values and slaughter data also indicated no effect due to two different methionine sources (P > 0.05).
Conclusion:
The results of the present study show that synthetic methionine may effectively be replaced with a naturally sourced methionine without affecting the health and growth performance of broilers. However, additional research is needed to further explore other natural sources of methionine.
