The relative effectiveness of liquid MHA-FA compared with DL-methionine in broiler chickens - a dose-response experiment

Abstract

A dose-response experiment with chicken broilers was performed in order to examine the relative effectiveness of liquid methionine-hydroxy analog-free acid (MHA-FA) and DL-methionine (DL-Met). Chickens were fed graded levels of either DL-Met or liquid MHA-FA from 1 to 42 days of age. During the experiment body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were determined.Increasing levels of DL-methionine and MHA-FA in the diet significantly improved BWG and FCR. Based on multiple non-linear regression analysis, the relative effectiveness of liquid MHA-FA was 64 and 59% compared with DL-Met with respect to BWG and FCR, respectively.