The Effect of Feeding Different Levels of Methionine and Two Levels of Energy on Broiler Performance During Heat Stress

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of high environmental temperature on growth performance, mortality of broiler chicken using graded level of methionine at two different levels of energy. Two hundred and forty day old chick Ross were used. Six dietary treatment with 3050 kcal/kg and 2850 kcal/kg and three levels of methionine 0% (NRC, 1994 level), 0.2%, 0.4% above the NRC (1994) level were fed to each group with four replicate ten birds each. The body weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, water intake and mortality were evaluated. Birds fed diet with low energy diet (2850 kcal/kg) supplemented with 0.2% methionine above the NRC level (1994) attained significantly (p<0.05) higher body weight gain compared to those fed high energy (3050 kcal/kg) with 0.4% methionine. No significant (p>0.05) effect of the two different levels of energy on body weight gain was found. In low energy diets (2850 kcal/kg) the higher levels of methionine added to the diets resulted in significantly (p<0.05) improved feed conversion ratio as compared to non supplemented groups. In contrast, the birds fed high energy diet had no difference in feed conversion between the different groups. The birds fed low energy diet (2850 kcal/kg) had significantly (p<0.05) higher feed intake than those fed high energy diet (3050 kcal/kg). No statistical significant effect of different levels of methionine on mortality. Water intake increase in birds fed diet with 2850 than those fed 3050 kca/kgME.