The effects of dietary methionine during 5-14 weeks of age on growth performance and carcass traits of chickens

The study was conducted on 120 local crossbred chickens to identify the effect of Methionine supplemen-tation on growth performance and carcass characteristics of chickens from 5 – 14 weeks of age. The experiment was a completely randomized design with four treatments (0.10; 0.15; 0.20; and 0.25 of Methionine in the diet, the total Met in each diet was increased following the standard of NRC) and three replicates per treatment (10 chickens per replicate, 5 male and 5 female chickens). The chickens had ad libitum accessed to feed and water. The results showed that there was a linear improvement of daily weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion. Methionine supplemen-tation in the diets at the rate of 0.25 reduced feed intake (51.13 g/day), increased final live weight (1513 g/bird), daily weight gain (18.30 g/bird), and improved feed conversion rate (2.79) (P<0.05). Carcass weight, breast weight, and thigh weight showed a linear increase by the Methionine treatments (P<0.05). However, internal organs were not exhibited any significant change (P>0.05) although their weight was increased with increasing concentration of Methionine. It could be concluded that the 0.25 Methionine supplementation is beneficial to improve the performance of chickens. © 2021 Vui et al.