The valine, leucine and isoleucine requirements of white Leghorn chicks

The requirements for leucine, isoleucine and valine were determined in 8- to 18-d-old White Leghorn male chicks. The requirements were estimated from body-weight gains. The estimated requirements for leucine, isoleucine and valine were 200, 115 and 125 mg/bird d, or 12.0, 5.0 and 8.0 g/kg diet, respectively. In terms of concentration in the diet, they are broadly similar to results for broiler-type chicks. When body-weight gain was plotted against daily intakes of each amino acid, significant (P less than 0.01) quadratic regression equations were obtained. The equations showed some characteristics of the individual amino acids.