Comparative performance of commercial broilers fed Herbomethione® as a replacement for DL-methionine in diet
2013
Kaur, Daljeet | Nagra, Sarabjit Singh | Sodhi, Sandeep | Dwivedi, PadamNath
To compare the effects of Herbomethione® and DL-methionine on growth, carcass characteristics, biochemical parameters and antibody profile, a total of 144, day-old (Vencobb) broiler chicks were equally and randomly assigned to three diets for 6 weeks. The diets included Corn–Soyabean meal-based control diet supplemented either with synthetic methionine (DL-M) or two herbal sources of methionine: HM-6 and HM-7. The birds were divided into three dietary treatments of 48 birds each and each treatment group was replicated three times with 16 birds per replicate. Both the herbal methionine supplements were procured from Indian Herbs Research and Supply Co. Ltd, Saharnpur, India. DL-M significantly produced a higher growth rate than HM-6 and HM-7 treated groups and had a slightly better efficiency of feed, protein and energy utilization. The source of methionine did not influence the carcass yield and organoleptic properties of the meat. HM-7 resulted in a higher antibody titre against NDV with a higher level of total protein and circulatory immune complex in the sera. The lipid content in the liver was higher in both HM-6 and HM-7 groups than DL-M. HM-6 and HM-7 were, respectively, 91.9 and 92.3% bio-efficient for growth relative to DL-M (100%). Under the conditions of this study, it was concluded that Herbomethione® (both HM-6 and HM-7) was not an effective alternate for DL-methionine to sustain a fast growth rate in commercial broiler chicks.
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