Two experiments were carried out to compare two techniques (amino acid supplementation and dilution) for formulating experimental diets for pre-starter (1 to 8 days) and starter (8 to 22 days) broiler chicks and to estimate digestible lysine requirements using the dose-response method. In each experiment, 1,200 male Cobb 500 chickens were randomly distributed according to a 5x2 factorial arrangement (lysine level x formulation technique) with six replicates of 20 birds each. For the supplemented diet, a basal diet was formulated to meet the nutritional requirements, then L-lysine HCl was added to achieve digestible lysine levels of 0.975, 1.082, 1.189, 1.296 and 1.403% in the pre-starter diets and 0.840, 0.932, 1.024, 1.116 and 1.208% in the starter diets.... |