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An experiment was conducted
to determine the comparative efficacy of DL-methionine and herbal methionine
on performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. Two
thousand and four hundred d-old commercial broiler (VenCobb) chicks
were purchased and randomly divided into four dietary treatment groups
of 600 birds each. Each treatment group was further subdivided into
three replicates of 200 broilers per replicate. The treatments groups
were control; control plus 10g DL-methionine/kg diet; control plus 10g
herbal methionine (Herbomethion®, supplied by Indian Research and Supply
Co. Ltd.) /kg diet and control plus 15g herbal methionine/kg diet. There
were significant effects of dietary treatments on body weight, body
weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio at 0 to 41 day. The
body weight and body weight gain of the broilers fed the 15g herbal
methionine/kg diet were heavier than other treatments. Feed conversion
ratio of broiler fed 15g herbal methionine/kg diet was significantly
better than that of broilers fed on 10g herbal methionine or DL-methionine/kg
diet. Neither DL-methionine nor herbal methionine supplementation had
a significant effect on broiler mortality. Plasma protein and enzyme
concentration was unaffected by the dietary treatments. Abdominal fat
(%) and liver lipid (g/kg) was significantly decreased by the addition
of 15g herbal methionine/kg diet. This study demonstrates that herbal
methionine can replace DL-methionine very effectively when used at the
rate 15g/kg diet of commercial broiler chicken.
