Arginine-lysine interrelationships in the nutrition of chickens

Abstract

A total of 8 experiments were conducted. Three experiments were designed to study the effects of various levels of arginine in lysine-deficient grower diets on body weight, feed consumption and subsequent reproductive performance of broiler breeder pullets. One experiment was conducted to study the effects of layer diets containing various levels of arginine and lysine on the reproductive performance of incrossbred commercial layers. Four experiments were conducted to study the effects of various levels of arginine in lysine-deficient diets on body weight gain, efficiency of feed utilization and consumption of feed or protein by broiler chicks. Results form 3 experiments indicated that if the low-lysine program is employed to rear heavy breed pullets, the arginine level of the diet is important and that the desired growth retardation and delay in sexual maturity may not occur if the arginine level is not reduced. Pullets fed grower diets deficient in lysine (0.40-0.50 percent) in combination with a high level of arginine (0.90-1.08) were not delayed in body weight and sexual development to the extent of pullets reared on grower diets containing 0.40 percent lysine and 0.50-0.70 percent arginine. Broiler breeder hens reared from 7 to 18 or 20 weeks on diets containing 0.40 percent lysine and 0.50-0.70 percent arginine laid more eggs and produced more total viable chicks per hen than pullets reared on diets containing various other levels of lysine and arginine. ...