Broiler responses to digestible total sulphur amino acids at different ages: a neural network approach

Abstract

Three experiments were conducted with broiler chickens to evaluate the effects of digestible total sulphur amino acid (TSAA) on their performance at three different phases of starter (1–14 d), grower (15–28 d) and finisher (29–42 d). The measured traits included: average daily gain (ADG), feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), carcass protein, body lipid (BL), feather weight gain, carcass plus feather protein, carcass TSAA deposition and nitrogen excretion (NE). A dilution technique was used to create seven diets (with eight replicates) increasing the TSAA content from 2.5 to 9.04 g/kg of diet for starter, 2.26 to 8.14 g/kg of diet for grower and 2.08 to 7.5 g/kg of diet for finisher. Data measured were imported to neural networks to predict the measured traits in response to dietary and intake levels of TSAA and find the optimal levels of TSAA that lead to the desired responses. Optimization results showed decreases in optimal dietary TSAA values with increasing age for all traits, while reverse was observed for intake values and requirements were increased as birds aged. The highest TSAA requirement (7.95, 7.2 and 6.6 g/kg and 283, 585 and 1150 mg/bird per d for starter, grower and finisher, respectively) were achieved for minimum BL and lowest (5.8, 5.2 and 4.9 g/kg and 201, 444 and 873 mg/bird per d for starter, grower and finisher, respectively) were suggested for minimum NE. Based on intake models, the optimal TSAA values for minimum FCR in phases 1–3 were 283, 585 and 1150 mg/bird per d while maximum ADGs were achieved with 201, 444 and 873 mg/bird per d of TSAA.