Relationship of methionine plus cystine with lysine in diets for laying Japanese quails

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the relationships of methionine plus cystine with lysine for Japanese quails in the laying phase. Thus, it was used 480 birds at initial age of 65 days, distributed in randomized block design with 6 treatments, 10 replicates and 8 birds per experimental unit. The treatments consisted of basal diet deficient in methionine plus cystine (0.65%), with 19.6% of crude protein and 2800 kcal of metabolizable energy/kg of ration, supplemented with six levels of DL-methionine 98% (0.116; 0.167; 0.218; 0.269; 0.320 and 0.371%), corresponding to methionine plus cystine with lysine ratio of 0.65, 0.70, 0.75, 0.80, 0.85 and 0.90, and the digestible lysine set at a suboptimal level of 1.00. The parameters studied were: feed intake, egg production per hen day, egg production per housed hen, commercial egg production, egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion per egg mass, feed conversion per dozen eggs, viability of birds, weight of the egg components (yolk, albumen and shell), percentage of components of eggs, diameter and height of the eggs and specific gravity. It was observed an increasing linear effect for feed intake, egg diameter, shell weight and percentage of yolk. For eggshell percentage, it was observed a decreasing linear effect. For the weight of the eggs, the best adjustment was obtained by using the Linear Response Plateau model. A quadratic effect was observed for egg mass, feed conversion per egg mass, egg production per hen day, egg production per housed hen, yolk weight, albumen weight and height of the eggs. The relationship of methionine plus cystine with lysine of 0.84 which corresponds to the consumption of 221.0 mg/bird/day of methionine + cystine provides better performance and satisfactory quality of Japanese quail eggs.

The Effect of Calcium and Available Phosphorus Levels on Performance, Egg Quality and Bone Characteristics of Japanese Quails at End of the Egg-Production Phase

“…Digestible amino acid requirements were supplied using the digestible lysine:amino acid ratios described by Pinto et al (2003), Umigi et al (2008), Pinheiro et al (2008), and Reis et al (2011), because the recommendations are expressed on total amino acids in the NRC table (1994). The ingredients and the calculated nutritional composition of the experimental diets are shown in Table 1.…”

2‐Hydroxy‐4‐methylthio butanoic acid and DL‐methionine for Japanese quails in production

“…The analysis of orthogonal contrasts for the significant variables (relative weight of shell, albumen and yolk and specific gravity) showed that animals fed the control diet laid eggs with lower absolute values for shell and albumen weight and were more prone to having a thin shell based on specific gravity analysis. These results show the importance of the supplemental dietary methionine source for laying quails because methionine is the first limiting amino acid for laying poultry Reis et al, 2011), especially for shell thickness, as this variable is key for egg integrity.…”

“…The performance of quails not fed a diet with a supplemental methionine source (T01, Basal diet) was inferior to that of supplemented quail, that is, they showed higher feed intake (30.56 g/quail/day), lower egg production (79.90 egg/day × 100), lower egg weight (10.39 g/egg) and higher feed conversion per egg mass (3.68 kg feed/kg eggs) and per egg dozen (0.459 kg feed/dozen eggs). This result explains the need for poultry supplementation with methionine, regardless of the source, because this amino acid is considered essential and is the first limiting amino acid for poultry, for both egg and meat production (Costa et al., ; Reis et al., ).…”

“…The same pattern of feed intake was observed for egg production and weight. The diet without supplementation caused worsened poultry performance because methionine is crucial for egg production and weight (Costa et al., ; Reis et al., ). The other variables, including egg mass and feed conversion per egg mass and feed conversion per dozen eggs, showed the same pattern because they are calculated based on egg production and egg weight and feed intake.…”

“…Methionine plays several roles in the poultry organism and affects the immune system (Kalinowski, Moran, & Wyatt, ), protein deposition (Hruby, ), lipid metabolism (Jensen, Wyatt, & Fancher, ) and energy metabolism (Boomgardt & Baker, ). Dietary methionine levels may also change egg weight and egg production (Costa et al., ; Reis et al., ).…”