REQUIREMENT OF DIETARY SULFUR AMINO ACIDS FOR SLOW-GROWING BROILERS FROM 1 TO 21 DAYS OLD

Abstract

This study was conducted to estimate the sulfur amino acid requirement of slow-growing broilers from 1 to 21 d-old. The experiment was done from February 2019 to June 2019 at Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand. A total of 480 chicks were randomly arranged to five dietary treatments with 6 replicates (16 birds per unit) in a completely randomized design. Experimental birds were fed 5 levels of sulfur amino acids: 0.71, 0.81, 0.91, 1.01, and 1.11%. The results showed that the experimental chickens exhibited significant (P < 0.05) responses to dietary sulfur amino acid levels in body weight gain and feed conversion ratio, while the alteration of dietary sulfur amino acid content did not affect feed intake of experimental chickens. The estimates of sulfur amino acid requirements using the broken-line regression analysis for body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were 0.91 and 0.89%, respectively. In conclusion, the estimated sulfur amino acid  requirements for slow-growing broilers chickens from 1 to 21 d-old were 0.90% based on the averages of measured criteria.