The performance of laying hens as affected by copper sulfate and methionine level

Two strains of White Leghorn hens were subjected to seven copper treatments that included a negative control for the first week of each of five 28-day periods. The hens were approximately 500 days of age when the experiment began. Copper treatments were assigned to simulate the different levels of copper intake that might result from differences in daily feed intake similar to the practice followed with commercial industry. In order to simulate daily dietary intake ranging from a low of 73 to a high of 136 g per bird, levels of 76, 91, 100, 114, 129, and 143 mg of copper sulfate per kilogram were added to each of the basal diets. Treatments were administered across two methionine levels in a corn-soy basal diet. Hen-day egg production, egg weight, daily feed intake, and feed efficiency values were not affected by dietary levels of copper or methionine. Hens fed diets containing low methionine laid eggs with significantly poorer specific gravity.