Essential Amino Acid Levels for Starting Turkey Poults

Abstract

Semi-purified diets were fed to Broad Breasted Bronze poults to estimate the minimum requirements for the essential amino acids. The protein portion of these diets was composed of herring meal, soybean meal, wheat gluten, gelatin, and crystalline amino acids. The diets contained 28% protein (N × 6.25) with 3050 kcalories M.E. per kilogram. The minimum requirements were determined using a regression analysis technique from the gain data. The estimated minimum requirements, as a percentage of the diet, are: arginine, 1.60; histidine, 0.58; lysine, 1.68; leucine, 1.86; isoleucine, 1.10; valine, 1.20; phenylalanine and tyrosine, 1.80; tryptophan, 0.26; methionine and cystine, 1.04; and threonine, 1.00. Two additional diets were formulated. One contained all essential amino acids at the minimum required levels (total 12.12% of the diet) and the other contained them at levels about 15.5% above the minimum (total 14%). These diets along with combinations of the two diets were fed to both B.B.B. and Large White poults. Growth rate, with the diet containing all essential amino acids at the minimum requirement levels, was only about 87% of that noted with the diet with a total of 14% essential amino acids. When any one of the essential amino acids was reduced from the higher to the minimum requirement level, poult performance was reduced only slightly.