Can the Fine Wheat Bran be a Betaine Source in Poultry Diets?

Ml Somensi,Fr Marx,Ms Vieira,Antr Monteiro,Am Kessler,L Bockor

doi:10.1590/1806-9061-2018-0817

Ml Somensi, Fr Marx + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9061-2018-0817

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Abstract

ABSTRACT The effect of fine wheat bran (FWB) as a methyl donor source on performance, metabolism, body composition and blood traits of growing broilers was studied. Three hundred and twenty broilers from eight to 28 d of age, distributed in a randomized block design, with five treatments and eight replicates of eight animals each were used. The experimental diets were: NC, formulated with 72% of the Met+Cys requirement; Met, formulated with 85% of the Met+Cys equivalents by DL-methionine addition; Bet, formulated with 85% of the Met+Cys equivalents by anhydrous betaine addition; Fwb-, formulated with 72% of the Met+Cys requirement and 20% FWB; and Fwb+, formulated with 85% of the Met+Cys requirement and 20% FWB. Feed intake was reduced (p 0.05) between the positive control diets. Supplementation of DL-methionine and anhydrous betaine showed the same (p>0.05) metabolizability of nutrients. Treatments with higher DL-methionine levels (Met and Fwb+) promoted more weight of feathers (p<0.05). Animals fed with FWB showed the lowest (p<0.05) body gains. In conclusion, FWB inclusion did not promote methyl radicals supply.

Highlights

In diets based on maize and soybean meal, methionine is often the first limiting amino acid for broilers
Despite the lower feed intake, the group fed with fine wheat bran (FWB) presented the same (p>0.05) feed conversion ratio (FCR) as those fed with additional DL-methionine and anhydrous betaine
Animals fed with the negative control diet (NC), showed a 6.1% increase (p

Summary

Introduction

In diets based on maize and soybean meal, methionine is often the first limiting amino acid for broilers. Methionine is an intermediate in transmethylation reactions, serving as the major methyl group donor in vivo (Nelson & Cox, 2012). The dietary supplementation of betaine may reduce the requirement for other methyl group donors, such as methionine and choline (Siljander-Rasi et al, 2003). Previous experiments have shown that it can replace the dietary DLmethionine supplementation for broilers, fed diets that had either an adequate or deficient methionine content (Siljander-Rasi et al, 2003; El-Husseiny et al, 2007). In comparison with other wheat by products, fine wheat bran (FWB) can be a good source of energy and protein as well, showing values of 19.56 MJ·kg-1 and 181.4 g·kg-1 for gross energy (GE) and crude protein (CP), on dry matter (DM) basis, respectively (Wesendonck et al, 2013)

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